^ii^ 



Ss<*w.^' 






>^r% 



'|r< I 



s* ^. 



I I I 



^1 I S«^' 



^^# 



% 



:^^^^" 






v^ 




LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 



UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 




SCHOOL HISTORY 



OF THE 



State of Missouri. 



BY 



PERRY S.'^RADER, A. B. 




BRUNSWICK. MO.: 

P. S. RADER, PUBLISHER. 

CO 






Copyrighted October 9th, 1891, by Perry S. Rader. 



All Rights Reserved. 



•WOODWARD & TIERNAN PRINTDfG CO., ST. LOUIS. MO. 



PRBFACE. 



In offering this little volume for use in public and other 
schools it is not without the hope that it may aid in inspiring 
the young with a purpose to make Missouri the brightest and 
best of the constellation of States. Our State at this time has 
a population almost as large as all the States had at the time 
of the formation of the Union in 1789. Our people have come 
from every State and almost every nation. This may be 
indicative of strength or of weakness. It is a heterogeneous 
people that should become homogeneous in feeling, purpose 
and State-pride. But this is far from the case. Many Virginians 
who have lived on our soil for a quarter of a century are yet 
Virginians; immigrants from New England, are yet New 
Englanders ; and the same is true of the settlers from almost 
every State and country. We still go to other States for our 
leading preachers, judges, lawyers, educators and governors. 
This ought not to be. We need to cultivate a State-pride above 
any other State, perhaps. It is also true that we have a history 
of which we may justly be j^roud. Few States have so charming 
and important a story. But it has rarely been told. The 

( iii ■) 



iv PREFACE 

children in our schools know far more of the history of the 
Atlantic States than of their own. It is the opinion of the 
author that a fuller acquaintance with Missouri's history will 
make her population a much stronger, a more patriotic and a 
happier people. Knowledge of our own deeds and convictions 
and glory will create mutual confidence and admiration, and 
then business enterprise, moral and spiritual culture and 
intellectual emulation will follow, and more rapidly than ever 
before. As a native of the State, who is proud of that fact, I 
may be permitted to wish that this volume will do its share 
in helping toward these good results. 

Brunswick, December ^, 1891. 



SUGGESTIONS TO TEACHERS. 



Successful instruction in any branch of learning depends 
almost entirely upon the intelligence and skill of the teacher. 
This is peculiarly true of a history which is confined to the 
limits of one of many States. The object of this book is to teach 
th-e children of Missouri something of the wonderful history of 
their native State, of the lives of the great men who have 
adorned it with honorable and glorious deeds, and of its relations 
to the general history of the nation. The author, in the 
narratives herein, has not lost sight of the fact that the State 
has been one of a great whole. But only so much of the 
national history is given as is necessary to show that relation 
and make her own interesting. 

The biographies are to be used with discretion. To force the 
pupil to commit to memory the exact date when some prominent 
man became a member of the Legislature would be to burden 
the mind with unnecessary labor. Such facts are given to aid 
the pupil in grasping the real events in a life and to connect it 
with State history. The mind is not a garret-room in which to 
store away uninteresting things. Correlation of events is far 
more important than a mere knowledge of dates and isolated 
facts. (1) 



2 SUGGESTIONS TO TEACHERS. 

The first words in each section are printed in italics so as to 
suggest the subject matter of that section. These can easily be 
changed, by the skillful teacher, into a question, and the pupil 
may be trained to connect these catch-words with the subject 
matter following, and thereby study with reference to them as 
the conclusion of the discussions and arguments of the section. 

In the Appendix may be found a treatise of the institutes of 
the State. This properly belongs to works on Civil Government, 
and for that reason is put in the Appendix ; but where no such 
Civil Government is in use in the school, it is recommended 
that this treatise be studied as a part of the State's history. The 
list of officers is only for reference. Instead of a contents a 
complete index is given as more useful for ready reference. 



^ 




93° Longitude 



Si ^ 



HISTORY OF MISSOURI. 



PART I. 
FRENCH AND SPANISH PBRIOD. 



CHAPTER I. 

DISCOVERIES. 



1. The History of Missouri has long been neglected. Missouri 
did not come into the Union till after the war of 1812, and 
indeed until within the memory of persons still living who 
were residents of her soil at the time of her admission. But 
she was the first Territory west of the Mississippi, with the 
single exception of Louisiana, to become a State. Because of her 
position west of that great river and on the border line between 
the North and South, because of the national disturbances which 
grew out of her admission, because of the special condition 
imposed on her at the time of her admission, and because of 



4 HISTOR Y OF MISSO URL 

her subsequent relations to the extension of slavery into other 
Territories, her history is am unique one, and has no parallel 
in other States. Its study has often been more partisan than 
patriotic. Often prejudiced men have taught it only for the 
purpose of dividing the people against each other, instead of 
conserving harmony and patriotism. 

2. Her history is an epitome of the history of the United States. 
The way in which mighty forests and fertile heaths can be 
changed by cultivation and population from a Avild wilderness to 
a civilized community, can be traced as plainly in the history of 
Missouri as in that of New England, the Middle or Southern 
States. In it we can easily trace the downfall of cherished 
institutions, and the uprising of a new order of things. In it 
we can study the growth of laws, religion, and education. In 
it we see an explanation of our country's wonderful growth 
and great strength. To study thoughtfully the history of 
Missouri, then, is, in many respects, to study the history of 
the United States. To inspire in the young a love for Missouri 
and a pride in her greatness and the honor of her people, and 
thus to assist them in being more useful and worthy citizens, 
is the object of this book. 

3. TJie first white man to put foot on the soil of Missouri 
was Hernando De Soto, in 1541. De Soto was a Spaniard. 
He had been with Pizarro in the conquest of Peru, and had 
returned from his buccaneering ventures there to Spain with 
a fortune of a half -million dollars. Hearing of the wonders of 
Florida and the country beyond it, that it abounded in gold 
and precious stones, he was fired with a passion for its conquest. 



DISCOVERIES. 5 

and obtained permission from the King to fit out an expedition 
for this purpose at his own expense. It was more like a royal 
pageant than an exploring party. His force consisted of six 
hundred followers, twenty officers, and twenty- four ecclesiastics, 
all gorgeously arrayed in splendid armor. He landed in great 
pomp at Tampa bay in 1539, and driving a great number of 
cattle and hogs before him for food for his men, proceeded 
west. The Indians and forests interposed. His followers were 
not trained to overcome the hardships of either. Some were 
killed by the Indians, and others died from sickness. No gold 
was found. The Indians told him of fabulous amounts of it 
to be had on the Mississippi river. He pressed forward and 
reached the river near Memphis, Tenn., in 1541, and pursued 
his way north into the region now known as New Madrid 
county in our own State. He then moved west, crossed the 
Ozark mountains, and spent the winter on the prairies and 
plains beyond, all the time searching for gold and silver, but 
finding none. He moved southward into Arkansas, reached 
Hot Springs and White river, and then came back to the 
Mississippi, where he died in the spring of 1542. The Indians 
believed him to be the Son of the Sun, who could not die. 
His priests, to conceal his death, therefore, wrapped his body 
in a mantle, sunk it at midnight in the great river he had 
discovered, and chanted over it the first requiem ever heard 
in the Mississippi valley. ''The wanderer," says Bancroft, 
''had marched over a large part of the continent in search of 
gold, and found nothing so remarkable as his burying place." 
Most of his soldiers perished before they reached Spain. 



6 HISTOR Y OF MISSO URL 

4. French Explorations. The Spanish, however, were not the 
first settlers. On the contrary, they did nothing toward 
colonizing Missouri, and it was two hundred and twenty years 
after De Soto's death till they again appeared on this territory. 
Even the part they then took, was unimportant. In the 
meantime the French, moved by a desire of doing missionary 
work among the Indians and enticed by the profitable fur trade, 
had pushed many hundred miles further west than had the 
English settlers along the Atlantic coast; had, from their homes 
in Canada, penetrated the forests around the Great Lakes, made 
several explorations of the Mississippi, and taken possession of 
the country in the name of France. We must speak briefly of 
these expeditions. The first was in 10 73, by James Marquette. 
He belonged to a noble family of the beautiful old cathedral 
city of Laon in France. He was a kind of soldier-priest, and 
it was in spirit of a missionary to the Indians that he and 
Louis Joliet, with five other men, left Quebec, which was then 
a French colony, and began a toilsome journey toward the 
Southwest. They discovered the upper Mississi^Dpi, and passed 
down it to the mouth of the Arkansas. 

6. La Salle and the ascent of the Missouri. In 1682 La Salle, 
another Frenchman from Quebec, explored the Mississippi to its 
mouth, and formally took possession of the whole country in the 
name of Louis XIV., the reigning King of France, in whose 
honor he called the country Louisiana. It was of indefinite 
limits, and, of course, included the present territory of Missouri. 
So our soil first belonged to France. Within the next fifty years 
various settlements were projected, all in the interest of the 



DISCOVERIES. 



mining of gold and silver. Most of these were on the east bank 

of the Mississippi, but in 1705 a prospecting party of Frenchmen 

ascended the Missouri river to where 

Kansas City is now situated. This 

was the first ascent of this noble 

river by white men. It was first 

called Pek-i-ta-nou-i, by Marquette, 

which is an Indian word, meaning 

' 'muddy water. ' ' About 1712, it was 

first called Missouri, from the .name 

of a tribe of Indians who inhabited 

the country at its mouth and along 

a considerable portion of its banks. 

There is no authority for the often 

"repeated assertion that "Missouri 

means muddy." This definition of 

the word was given it after the name 

of the river was changed from Pekitanoui to Missouri. 

6. An exploration of the interior of Missouri by the French was 
begun in 1719. The authorities at New Orleans ordered the 
expedition, and De Dutisne was placed in charge of it. He 
started with his force from the mouth of Saline river, a stream 
about seventy miles south of St. Louis. He moved northwest 
across the Ozark mountains to the Osage river, near which he 
came upon a village occupied by Osage Indians, containing about 
100 cabins and huts. One hundred and twenty miles further 
west he found two other large villages, inhabited by Poncas 
Indians, who seemed to own many horses. He returned by way 
of the Missouri river, and took formal possession of the country 




ROBERT CAVALIER DE LA SALLE. 



8 HISTOR Y OF MISSO URL 

by erecting posts with the king's arms. After this expedition 
the daring Frenchmen ventured into the forests for purposes 
of hunting, trading and mining. The rapidity with which they 
came excited the jealousy of the Spanish, who still claimed the 
country. 

7. The Spanish Caravan. The Spanish authorities determined 
to destroy the power of the French along the Missouri and 
Mississippi. In 1720 they organized a motley troop at Santa Fe, 
to which was given the name of ''The Spanish Caravan." It 
moved across the plains and entered the Missouri country. Its 
leader had been informed that the Pawnee Indians were friends 
of the Spanish and enemies of the French and Missouris. He 
directed his guides to lead him to the Pawnee camp. Instead of 
doing so, they led him to the camp of the Missouris. There he 
told the Missouri chief of his intention to kill all his tribe and 
exterminate the French. The chief heard him with silence, 
treated the caravan with hospitality, summoned his warriors and 
while the Spanish supposed they were in the midst of their 
friends, fell upon them and exterminated the whole caravan. 

8. Fort Orleans. The boldness of the Spanish caravan induced 
the French to send a force up the Missouri, w^hich built a fort 
somewhere along the south shore, within the present limits of 
Saline County, perhaps about fifteen miles above the mouth of 
Grand river. De Bourgmont, from Mobile, was in command, and 
called it Fort Orleans. At this time a general Indian war was 
being waged, which greatly interfered with the fur trade. To 
remedy this, Bourgmont undertook to make peace among the 
Indians. He succeeded in holding a council of their chiefs, on 



THE FIRST SETTLEMENTS. 9 

the Kansas river, where the pipe was smoked, and a general 
peace was concluded. Soon after this Fort Orleans was destroyed 
and the garrison massacred, probably by the Missouris, who were 
always troublesome to the whites, but this point is in doubt. 
The fur trade went on, but so far there had been no permanent 
settlement within the present limits of Missouri. 



CHAPTER II, 



THE FIRST SETTLEMENTS. 



9. The first place settled in Missouri was Ste. Genevieve 
(pronounced Jen-e-veev) in about 1735. It was about three 
miles from the present town of that name on the Mississippi 
river, sixty miles below St. Louis. For some time daring and 
hardy Frenchmen had been gathering in and around Kaskaskia, 
a settlement in Illinois, until at this time it had about six 
thousand people. Most of them had come in search of gold and 
silver. Some of them, under Renault, a wealthy and extensive 
miner, crossed over into Missouri in search of these metals. 
They found none, but they did find lead in abundance. 
Furnaces were prepared for smelting, and it was conveyed in 
boats, to New Orleans, and then to France. In 1785 the old town 
was destroyed by flood, and the site of the present town was 
selected. Many settlers came from the east side of the 



10 HISTOR Y OF MIJSSO URL 

Mississippi, and the town soon became an important trading 
point. 

10. The next settlement of any consequence was St. Louis. Its 
founder was Laclede, whose name has since been given to many 
business institutions in the State. His full name was Pierre 
Laclede Ligueste, but he was more generally known as Pierre 
Laclede. He was a man of great business sagacity. In 1762 he 
and some associates, among them Antoine Maxent, obtained from 
M. D'Abbadie a monopoly of the fur trade with the Indians of 
Missouri. D'Abbadie was the director-general, the civil and 
military commander of Louisiana, and exercised a vice-regal 
authority. Laclede explored the regions along the Mississippi in 
search of the best point at which to establish a trading post and 
sell goods. His keen commercial sense directed him to a bluff 
on the west side of the river. Here on the spot where the old 
Merchant's Exchange and Barnum s Hotel afterwards stood, 
on the south side of Market street, which took its name from 
the only market house the city contained for sixty years, he 
cleared away the heavy timber and erected his trading post, 
in February, 1764. This was the beginning of St. Louis. 
Laclede was right. It was the best place for trade then. It is 
the best now. 

11. The first settlement in St. Charles wsls made by Blanchette, 
"the hunter," about the time St. Louis w^as founded, and was 
called Village des Cotes (the village of the hills). It was the 
first settlement north of the Missouri river. Most of the Indian 
wars, massacres and adventures which attended the early 
settlements of the State, took place here. It was here the first 



THE FIRST SETTLEMENTS. H 

forts were built, and here the renowned Indian chief, Black 
Hawk, made his first efforts against the whites. 

12. About this time ended French rule in Missouri. The battle of 
Quebec, in which had met the chivalrous Montcalm and the 
noble Wolfe, the one commanding the intrepid French and the 
other the invincible English, had been fought more than four 
years before. It was the end of a contest between these two 
peoples for the possession of America. It was decided in favor 
of the English, and the decision marks an epoch in the progress of 
civil liberty. France, by a treaty ratified at Fontainbleau in 
1763, gave up all her territory in America — the Canadas, and all 
that part of Louisiana east of the Mississippi, except New Orleans, 
to England; and New Orleans and all the country west of the 
river, to Spain as an indemnification for her losses in the war. 
England thus acquired rule over the east side of the river before 
Laclede had settled in St. Louis, but Missouri belonged to Spain. 
England at no time before or after this was entitled to Missouri's 
soil. Because of the long war between England and France, the 
settlers along the upper Mississippi valley, most of wdiom were 
Frenchmen, greatly disliked the idea of being subject to England. 
It was thought Spain could never exercise dominion over her 
newly acquired territory, and hence many of them crossed over 
the river into Missouri. This will explain why the population 
increased so rapidly for the next few years, and why it was 
mostly French, although governed by Spain. 

13. St. Angers rule. Although the title to Louisiana was now 
in Spain, the officers of that nation did not succeed in formally 
taking possession of the country till 1770. Soon after the treaty 



12 HISTOR Y OF MISSO URL 

was signed, St. Ange de Belle Rive, who was commander for the 
French in Illinois, surrendered his authority to Captain Sterling, 
the representative of England, and settled in St. Louis. He was 
followed by many of the French settlers east of the river. By 
common consent, and probably by permission of the government 
at New Orleans, he was made the commandant of the settlement. 
He was a wise and safe ruler. 

14. St. Ange and Pontiac. St. Ange and the settlers were 
enemies of English rule, and friends to England's enemies. 
They were admirers and supporters of Pontiac, a powerful Indian 
chief, who was the terror of the whites from the Atlantic to the 
Mississippi. Pontiac, aided by the French, had met a strong 
English army at Pittsburgh under Braddock and George 
Washington, and disastrously defeated it. St. Ange invited 
Pontiac to visit him, which he did. He was entertained with 
great distinction at the house of Madame Chouteau (Sho-to) and 
was visited by the principal citizens. But when France lost her 
possessions in America, Pontiac thereby lost his greatest support. 
His allies among the Indians soon afterwards forsook him. He 
was crushed in spirit and sought to drown his sorrow in 
intoxicating drink. He visited Cahokia, richly dressed in robes 
adorned with eagles' feathers. Becoming stupefied by drink, he 
wandered into a thicket near the place, and was there assassinated 
by a Kaskaskia Indian, who was hired by an English trader and 
received a barrel of whisky for the murder. St. Ange had his 
body brought to St. Louis and buried at the intersection of 
Walnut and Fourth streets, where it still rests. Near his grave 
St. Ange was buried in after years. Houses are there now, 



SPA NISH B ULE. 13 

and it is known by few that the great Pontiac and the good 
St, Ange lie in unmarked graves in the midst of the great city. 



CHAPTER III. 
SPANISH RrLE. 



15. Tfie first Spanish lieutenant-governor, acting as a subordinate 
in most things to the governor at New Orleans, was Don Pedro 
Piernas. The people regretted to see the flag of France low^ered, 
and even shed tears when they realized that they were to be ruled 
by one of a different blood and nation from themselves. But 
their regrets did not last long. Piernas was a mild and safe ruler. 
He made few laws, and they were just and easily obeyed. He 
appointed St. Ange captain of his infantry, and filled nearly all 
the subordinate offices w4th Frenchmen. He began systematic 
surveys of the lands and appointed a Frenchman surveyor. He 
further publicly confirmed all the land grants made by St. Ange 
between the time of the transfer of the territory from France to 
Spain in 1763 and the beginning of the Spanish rule in 1770, 
which grants would of course have been illegal had he not 
confirmed them. He finally won the entire confidence of the 
people by marrying a French lady, so that after they had known 
him for five years they again shed tears to give him up. He had 
found a population of 891, most of which was confined to St. 



14 HISTORY OF MISSOURI. 

Louis and Ste. Genevieve. The people were mostly French, and 
few of them could read or write. There were no schools and 
very little desire for any. But they were honest, industrious 
and peaceable. Indeed, during the entire Spanish period of 
thirty-eight years, only one case of murder of a white man by a 
white man in St. Louis is reported. 

16. The soil at that time was covered with thick forests or rank 
prairie grass, filled with all kinds of game, and inhabited by 
Indians who lived in wigwams and hunted and fished for 
subsistence. The French settlers were possessed of an aptitude 
for easy and peaceable intercourse with the natives. They studied 
their language, took part in their sports, adapted themselves to 
their usages, humored their whims, and never ridiculed their 
religious notions. Often the settler, of plastic temper, with a 
free-and-easy manner, would decorate his hair with eagle feathers, 
attach hairy fringes to his hunting shirt, and mix and mingle 
with the Indian as if he were his equal. Hence it was that there 
were fewer Indian wars in the early settlement of Missouri than 
in many of the other States. 

17. The land was oivned largely hy tenancy in common. The 
principle of landlord and tenant, or of proprietary government, 
which was the most usual way of holding the soil in the early 
Atlantic States, never existed among them. The monopoly of 
-the fur trade granted to Laclede was only a semblance to it, and 
even that, after it expired in 1772, was never repeated, and 
thereafter but few settlers received any special favors from the 
government. The settlements had each a common in the rear of 
the houses, inclosing hundreds of acres under one fence for the 



SPANISH RULE. 15 

benefit of all. But the settlements themselves were compact 
villages, for the settlers were sociable and loved to congregate 
together. Nearly all the early ones were along some river. A 
long street usually extended parallel to it. The land along it was 
divided into lots a few rods wide and perhaps twice as long. On 
these the houses were built, which were usually one story high, 
constructed of corner posts and studs, to which were attached 
numerous cross-ties. Then a stiff mortar, made of mud and cut 
straw, was plastered onto the outside. The roof was shingled 
with bark or clapboards. The chimney was the celebrated 
stick-and-dirt chimney." It was made of rock and burnt dry 
to some distance above the intense heat of the fire, and from 
that distance was finished with alternate pieces of wood and 
clay plaster. The floors were made of logs with the upper 
roundness hewn flat, or of split logs, the flat sides of which were 
turned up, and, by notchings in the ends, were thus put on a 
level. These were called puncheon floors. The doors were hung 
on wooden hinges. Back of each house was a field, 192 feet wide 
and 7,800 feet long, containing about thirty-four acres/ Each 
villager had one or more of these fields assigned to him, according 
to his desires, or the necessities of his family. Next to the fields 
was the common, stocked with cattle, hogs and horses, the 
property of all. 

18. Hospitality tuas a duty and a virtue. Each house was a free 
hotel to the extent of its capacity. Amusements, festivals and 
holidays were frequent. There were no statutory laws; no trades 
nor professions; no courts, no prisons. The priests were their 
instructors and judges in all matters of learning and religion. 



16 HISTOR Y OF MISSO URL 

In politics they were attached to France, and were not anxious 
about any political questions, believing that France ruled the 
world and ruled it right. 

19. TJiere were no trials by jury during either the French or 
Spanish period. This great bulwark of English liberty — perhaps 
the distinctive characteristic of their government wherever the 
Anglo-Saxon race has spread — had no sway till after Missouri 
was acquired by the United States. If one wished to recover 
property, or had committed a crime, the matter was submitted to 
a judge, who decided as he understood the law and merits of the 
cause, or as his prejudices directed him. 

20. We have now come to the time of the Revolutionary War, which 
though fraught with very great consequences, yet disturbed these 
sturdy settlers very little. They were French subjects of Spain, 
and the war was fought by England and her subjects. These 
settlers, removed a thousand miles from the scene of the war, 
therefore took no part in it, except as did Spain and France, to 
sympathize with the Colonies and wish for their success. In 
1778 Virginia sent out General George Rogers Clark, who 
captured the British settlements in Illinois, such as Kaskaskia, 
Cahokia and St. Vincent's, now Vincennes. The British 
undertook, soon after this, a comprehensive movement for the 
expulsion of the Spanish from the Mississippi Valley. The plan 
was first to capture St. Louis, recapture the towns taken by Gen. 
Clark, and then move down the river to New Orleans. In a 
spirit of generous chivalry, Gen. Clark offered his force to 
Governor DeLeyba, a cowardly, drunken, weak-minded Spaniard, 
who, in 1778, had succeeded Cruzat as governor. Leyba assured 



SPANISH RULE. 17 

him there was no need of his aid, and it was therefore refused. 
The people, however, began a series of fortifications, and con- 
structed a rude wall, which extended around the city and down 
to the river. Four or five months passed and nothing happened. 
But, on the 26th of May, 1780, a force of 150 whites and 1,500 
Indians gathered in the woods around St. Louis, and first 
captured two citizens where the fair grounds are now situated, 
and which at that time, were outside the wall. They were John 
Babtiste Riviere, whom they kept as prisoner, and a man by the 
name of Cardinal, after whom Cardinal Spring is named. Him 
they killed. The hostile force proceeded at once to the attack. 
In doing so they intercepted several citizens, some of whom they 
killed, others escaped and alarmed the town. The fort had a 
few cannon, and the people were well supplied with small 
fire-arms. With these they made a spirited and determined 
resistance. The Indians were terrified by the cannon and 
withdrew. The number killed has never been definitely known. 
It was perhaps not more than thirty, though Lieutenant-Governor 
Sinclair says ''sixty-eight were killed, and eighteen blacks and 
white people taken prisoners." During the battle Commandant 
Leyba was aroused from a drunken carousal by the sound of the 
artillery. He at once ordered the firing to cease. Some of the in- 
habitants did not hear the order, and continued to fire. He then 
directed the cannon -to be turned oil them, which was done. This 
so infuriated the people that his removal was requested of the 
Governor at Louisiana. -He died within a month, from suicide, 
despised by every one as a traitor. Cruzat, whom he had two years 
before succeeded, was again appointed Lieutenant-Governor. 



18 HISTOR Y OF MISSO URL 

2 1 . Cruzat had succeeded Piernas as Lieutenant-Governor , in 1775. 
His first term lasted till 1778, and was modeled after that of his 
wise predecessor. His second term, which began in 1780 and 
lasted till 1787, was mild and prosperous. A census, taken in 
1785, shows a population of about 1,500 for all Missouri, which 
number was swelled to 2,100 by another census of 1788. This 
increase was largely due to a freshet in the Mississippi, which 
overflowed much of Kaskaskia and Cahokia, and caused some of 
the inhabitants of those towns to cross over into Missouri. To 
such a height did the angry waters rise that 1785 was long 
afterwards known as 'Hhe year of the great water." While 
Cruzat was commander, the trade of the Mississippi was much 
impaired by pirates. Grand Tower was a large column of rock 
situated about midway between St. Louis and the mouth of the 
Ohio. Here a large band of pirates collected and would capture 
and pillage passing boats, appropriate their cargoes, and kill 
their crews. These depredations went on until 1788, and many a 
daring robbery and foul murder was committed. Other portions 
of the river were also infested. That year, however, the Governor 
at New Orleans ordered all boats traveling on the river to go 
together. By this means their combined strength was too much 
for the pirates, and they were dispersed and never afterwards 
heard of. 

22. In 1787 ^ Manuel Perez came into office. During his 
administration, bands of Shawnees and Delawares, driven by 
the advancements of the whites from beyond the Alleghanies, 
settled near Ste. Genevieve and Cape Girardeau. Here they 
remained for thirty-five years, till 1825, when they were required 



SPANISH RULE. 19 

to move still further westward. They were peaceable and 
industrious and never quarreled with the whites of these regions. 
They became useful to them as hunters and small farmers, and 
were established in small settlements close to the whites as an 
intervention between them and more unfriendly tribes. In after 
years one of these Shawnee chiefs is said to have addressed these 
words to General Harrison: ''You call us your children ; why 
do you not make us happy as our fathers, the French, did? 
They never took from us our lands; indeed, they were in common 
between us. They planted where they pleased, and cut wood 
where they pleased. So did we. But now, if a poor Indian 
attempts to take a little bark from a tree to cover him from the 
rain, up comes a white man and threatens to shoot him, claiming 
the tree as his own." The honorable conduct of the Missouri 
settlers toward the Indians is a part of our history which admits 
of just pride. 

23. Li 1793 Trudeau came into office, and in 1799 he was 
succeeded by the last of the Spanish commandants, Delassus 
(de-la-su), a Frenchman by descent, and perhaps also by birth. 
Aside from the "hard winter" of 1798-99 and the "small-pox", 
of 1801, there are but two important facts to consider. They 
explain the rapid increase of the population which in 1800 arose 
to about six thousand, and in 1803 to about ten thousand, and 
also why nearly all of the increase was English instead of 
French. By the Revolutionary war the Colonies acquired all 
the soil east of the Mississippi except Florida, and Congress in 
1787 passed a law prohibiting slavery north of the Ohio river. 
Hence many of the settlers in that territory who owned slaves 



20 HISTORY OF MISSOURI. 

came to Missouri, and many others from the slave States sought 
homes where the law did not apply. The other cause was the 
liberal terms upon which the immigrant could obtain soil west 
of the Mississippi. In 1796 the English of Canada threatened 
an invasion of Upper Louisiana. The Spanish authorities 
conceived themselves under the necessity of strengthening their 
settlements for defense. They argued that the hostility of the 
people of the United States would prove a sufficient guaranty of 
their fidelity to Spain. Hence lands were freely offered to all 
such settlers as would pay the office fees and expenses of 
surveying. By these terms one could get eight hundred acres 
of land of his own choosing, for about fifty dollars, almost 
entirely free from subsequent taxes. In making these grants 
no favoritism was shown Catholics as against Protestants, and 
the king gave orders that the people were not to be disturbed in 
the exercise of their religion. 

24. Such in brief is the History of Spanish Rule in Missouri. It 
was, for the most part, brave, manly and wise. The people were 
far away from the civilization of the world, in the very heart of 
a continent inhabited by savages, with only a few settlements by 
white persons within a thousand miles of them. They were free 
from taxation, free from the tyranny and interference of a foreign 
king, and untrammeled by a bigoted priesthood. Yet the 
amicable terms they maintained with the Indians, and the 
orderly government they held over themselves without laws or 
juries, and almost without officers of any kind, enlist at once our 
a.dmiration and hold our serious thought. So that we do not 
wonder that, when the country was transferred to the United 



SPANISH RULE. 21 

States in 1804, ''few of the French and part of the English- 
Americans only were reconciled to the change, though they 
never manifested any discontent." 

25. Population. Another census taken in 1800, gives the 
population of St. Louis at 925; of St. Charles, at 875; of Ste. 
Genevieve, at 949; of New Madrid, at 782, and the entire 
population of Missouri at 6,028. Of this number 4,948 were 
w^hites, 197 free colored, and 883 slaves. Nearly four years 
later when the territory was transferred to the United States, it 
had increased to 9,020 whites and 1,320 colored, most of the 
latter being slaves. 



22 HISTOR Y OF MISSO URL 



PART II. 

TKRRITORIAL l^ERIOD. 



CHAPTER I. 



THE LOUISIANA PURCHASE. 



26. The situation. By the treaty of 1763 Spain acquired all 
the countr}^ west of the Mississippi and the island on which New 
Orleans is situated. Events which startled the world liad been 
taking place in Europe toward the close of this century. 
Napoleon Bonaparte was in the full flush of military triumph,, 
and had raised France to great political supremacy on land. He 
w^ished also to advance her to a high position at sea and in 
commerce. In furtherance of this plan he determined to have 
Louisiana. He asked the king of Spain to cede all that territory 
to France, and in return offered to establish the king's son-in-law 
upon the throne of the new kingdom of Etruria, which he wa& 
about to set up. The transfer was made on October 1st, 1800, 
and thus the title to a territory much larger than all the 
thirteen original colonies was acquired by the single stroke of 
the pen. But the negotiation was kept secret. Napoleon feared 



THE LOUISIANA PURCHASE. 23 

if England knew it at once she might make it impossible for him 
ever to possess the countr3^ But, nevertheless, the title to 
Missouri was now in France again. We must see how it came 
to belong to the United States. 

27. The imr chase. It was not many months till it became 
known in America that the cession had been made. The 
announcement created great unrest throughout the country, 
especially in the Ohio valley, which at this time was inhabited 
by over a half -million people from the Atlantic States. For 
some years before the transfer to France, Spain had claimed the 
sole right of the navigation of the Mississippi, which was the 
only way the people of the Ohio country had of reaching the 
world's markets. This claim on the part of Spain greatly 
disturbed their trade and aroused the people to indignation and 
resentment, and led them to declare they would take up arms to 
hold the Mississippi. The people beyond the Alleghanies gave 
little heed to these Ohio troubles till Louisiana was transferred to 
France. Then a protest arose from the whole nation. A weak 
nation like Spain was not to be feared, but a powerful one like 
France, in full control of the Mississippi river and a strong 
garrison at New Orleans, could greatly impair the power and 
greatness of the United States. President Jefferson, therefore, 
instructed Mr. Livingston, the minister to France, to protest in 
the name of his nation against any attempt by France to occupy 
Louisiana. But about this time England was drawn into the 
war against Napoleon. She was mistress of the sea and could 
easily thwart Napoleon's plans of possessing himself of Louisiana. 
She too objected to France having that great country and 



24 HISTOR Y OF MISSO URL 

determined to oppose Napoleon in any attempt to possess himself 
of it. From these reasons and because of the demand for all his 
forces for his military operations on land, Napoleon saw the 
coveted prize had gone from him forever. Besides he was in 
need of money. But he was determined to put it out of the 
reach of England, and hoping to conciliate the United States 
toward him he proposed to Mr. Livingston to sell Louisiana. 
President Jefferson sent Mr. Monroe, afterwards President 
himself, to France to assist in the purchase of New Orleans and 
West Florida, but on his arrival he found Napoleon willing to 
sell all of Louisiana. Monroe and Livingston therefore under- 
took to purchase the whole. Napoleon had instructed his officer 
not to take less than fifty million francs, but he at first asked one 
hundred million. The American ministers offered eighty million, 
and the trade was soon closed. Of this sum, which amounted 
to $15,000,000, one-fourth was remitted because of the damage 
which had been done to the trade of the Ohio country after 
Louisiana had been transferred from Spain to France. 

28. The contract of purchase was signed on May 3rd, 1803, and 
on October 17th the treaty was ratified in the United States Senate 
by a vote of twenty-four to seven, and, on the 21st, Congress, by 
a large majority of each house, at once provided for the bonds 
with which to pay for the purchase. By Article III. of the 
contract, written by the great Napoleon himself, it was stipulated 
that **the inhabitants of the ceded territory shall be incorporated 
in the Union of the United States and admitted as soon as 
possible, according to the principles of the Federal Constitution, 
to the enjoyment of all the rights, advantages and immunities of 



MISSOURPS FIRST YEARS AS A TERRITORY. 25 

citizens of the United States ; and in the meantime they shall 
be maintained and protected in the free enjoyment of their 
liberty, property, and the religion which they profess." These 
words are important, because they entered largely into the con- 
troversy which grew out of Missouri's application for admission 
into the Union. The purchase having been made and indorsed 
by Congress, it only remained for the United States to take 
formal possession of the territory. This was easily done. On 
the 9th of March, 1804, the American troops crossed the river 
and entered St. Louis, and Delassus, on the part of Spain, 
delivered Upper Louisiana to Captain Amos Stoddard, of the 
United States Army, who had been commissioned by France to 
receive it in her behalf, and on the next day he transferred it to 
the United States. The territory thus acquired amounted to 
900,000 square miles, almost one-third of the entire area of the 
United States at present, and included all the country west of the 
Mississippi to the Rocky mountains except a part of Texas and 
New Mexico. 



CHAPTER II. 

MISSOURPS FIRST YEARS AS A TERRITORY. 

29. Louisiana was divided into two parts soon after its transfer 
to the United States. All of it now within the State of Louisiana 
was then called the Territory of Orleans ; to the rest was given 



26 HISTOR Y OF MISSO URL 

the name of the District of Louisiana at first, but within a year 
it was changed to the Territory of Louisiana. It of course 
embraced the country now called Missouri. For the purposes of 
government the district was attached to the then Territory of 
Indiana, whose governor at that time was General William 
Henry Harrison, afterwards President for a short time. He first 
set in operation the powers of the United States over the new 
territory. The people objected to being attached to Indiana, and 
drew up a remonstrance and petition to Congress in which they 
asked to be organized as a territory of the second class. Fifteen 
men, ''elected by the free men of the district," were chosen to 
prepare the paper, and of this number eight were of French 
extraction, which fact indicates of what races were the settlers of 
Missouri at that time, and also how readily the Frenchman 
adopted the political methods of his neighbors of English blood, 
with whom almost alone it was a rule to ask for a redress of 
grievances by petition. 

30. TJieir petition was in part granted. Congress recognized 
three grades of territories at that time. The district was 
separated from Indiana and erected into a Territory of the first 
or lowest grade, instead of the second, for which they had asked. 
The Governor and three judges, to be appointed by the President, 
were to make laws for the government and regulation of the 
Territory, subject all the time of course to the approval of 
Congress. This was agreeable to the people. But nothing was 
done toward a settlement of the disputed titles to their lands. 
These were in great confusion because of the loose way in which 
the Spanish had always made surveys and grants of land, and 



Missorurs first years as a territory. 27 

because much soil had heen granted to settlers by the Spanish 
rulers after the territory had been ceded to France in 1801 and 
before it had heen transferred to the United States in 1804. 
Nothing was done towards remedying the uncertainty of the 
land-claimants' tenures, and as a result immigration was greatly 
retarded, and the people undertook to defend their titles for 
themselves. There were courts for them to apply to, but not 
sufficient laws to enable the courts to give relief. The delay of 
Congress in passing the needed legislation begot impatience and 
disorder among the people. In some cases the adverse claimants 
to the soil, with gun in hand, determined between themselves 
who should be its owner. .. But in 1812, after a delay of n.early 
eight years. Congress passed a law confirming the titles of the 
inhabitants of the different villages to the lands which they had 
occupied prior to the Louisiana purchase. This gave the desired 
relief. The tide of immigration now set in strongly again and 
the price of land increased, in some instances, six hundred per 
cent in a few years. It must be remembered, however, that 
these disorders in regard to the land titles were almost entirely 
confined to those parts of the territory which had been settled 
during the Spanish domination and which now were fast losing 
their French aspect because of the rapid influx of persons of 
English blood. 

31. The first Governor appointed under the new order of 
things was General James AVilkinson. With him were associated 
as chief justice, J. B. C. Lucas, a very worthy gentleman, who 
had been a judge in Pennsylvania; and as secretary, Dr. Joseph 
Browne, who was a brother-in-law of Aaron Burr, by whose 



28 HISTOR Y OF MISSO URL 

request he obtained the appointment. Just at the time of 
Wilkinson's appointment the dissatisfaction above spoken of in 
regard to bind titles was beginning. His previous life and" 
general qualifications, it was thought, would check all this, and 
bring the United States government into popular favor with the 
inhabitants whose traditions, customs and blood were so very 
different from those of the rest of the Union. But this proved 
to be a sad mistake. To properly . understand these assertions 
it will be necessary to speak of the unusual course of the 
contemptuous Aaron Burr and Wilkinson's connection therew^ith. 
32. Burr and Wilkinson. Burr had, in 1801, been elected 
Vice-President, and prevented from being President only by a 
very narrow majority vote of the House of Representatives. 
Becoming unpopular as a politician, sour at his disappointment, 
but still ambitious for political renown, towards the close of his 
term he came to the West with the object of revolutionizing 
Mexico, making himself its ruler, and ultimately attaching all 
the country w^est of the Alleghanies to his dominions. He 
expected his chief support from the Territory of Louisiana. 
There is no reason to believe that Wilkinson was not influenced 
by him and perhaps half-heartedly and secretly joined in his 
plans. Burr visited the Territory in September 1805, and in 
1807 he was put on trial for conspiring to break up the Union, 
and the next year Wilkinson was tried as an accessory to his 
crime. The latter was the principal witness against Burr, and 
in the course of the trial was able to show that he had written to 
the proper authorities at Washington more than a year before the 
final collapse of Burr's plans, that "Burr was about something, 



MISSOUEFS FIBST YEARS AS A TERRITORY. 29 

and an eye ought to be kept on him." This letter perhaps 
prevented Wilkinson's conviction, but it will be seen that it was 
written a year after Burr had first visited him. In fact the 
evidence seems strong that Wilkinson at first secretly supported 
Burr, but within a year, from fear of the results or from some 
other equally good cause, concluded it best not to yoke his 
fortunes with Burr's any longer. Wilkinson, besides his com- 
promising relations with Burr, was a speculator in land and his 
conduct was otherwise odious to the people. Hence he was 
removed after acting as Governor about two years and was 
succeeded by General Meriwether Lewis, of the celebrated 
Lewis-and-Clark Expedition. He afterwards became prominent 
in the war of 1812. 

33. In the mea7itime the people prospered. The population, at 
first confined almost entirely to the villages, had begun to 
extend itself into the surrounding forests and prairies. Settlers 
had found their way into Warren county, as far west as the 
present western boundary of St. Charles county, into Franklin 
county and along the Gasconade. Most of the immigrants at 
this time were from the Atlantic States. Their industry, 
superior knowledge and enterprise soon gave them a controlling 
influence. They occupied the most prominent positions and 
took the lead in society and business. No more immigrants 
came from France and Spain. Lands began to have a recognized 
value and soon speculations in them were active. The pursuits 
of the people began to be largely agricultural. In 1808 the first 
newspaper was established. It was the first paper published 
west of the Mississippi river. It was called the ' 'Missouri 



20 



HISTORY OF MISSOURI. 



Gazette," and with varying success has been continuously 
jpublished since. Its present name is the ''St. Louis Republic." 



CHAPTER III. 



EXPLORING EXPEDITIONS. 



34. The famous expedition of Lewis and Clark was projected 
"by President Jefferson soon after the purchase of Louisiana, and 

was placed in charge of General 
Lewis, the President's private 
secretary, and Captain William 
Clark, of the Ignited States Army. 
Each of these gentlemen after- 
wards became Governor of Mis- 
souri by appointment. The com- 
pany was composed of nine young 
men from Kentucky, 'fourteen 
soldiers, two Canadian boatmen 
and a few servants. They began 
the ascent of the Missouri river 
in May 1804, and passed up it to 
its head waters, stopping off fre- 
quently to explore the surrounding country, collected facts about 
the character and strength of the various Indian tribes, about 
the fertility of the soil, and the number and extent of the 




GEN. MERIWETHER LEWIS. 



EXPLORING EXPEDITIONS. 81 

tributaries of this great river. They spent the first winter just 
this side of the Rocky Mountains in forts constructed by them- 
selves. Early next spring they began crossing the mountains 
and had many a sharp and wild encounter with grizzly bears, 
mountain lions and other animals. In November, 1805, they 
reached the ocean, having traveled over four thousand miles. 
It was the first expedition of the kind ever undertaken by our 
government, and the return of the party safe and successful, 
after an absence of over two years, was hailed with delight 
throughout the entire West. Congress joined in the general 
acclaim and voted each of the persons engaged in the expedition 
a tract of land in recognition of his services ; and in further 
reward for General Lewis's services, he was appointed Governor 
of the territory which he had done so much to make known. 

35. About the same time Zebulon Montgomery Pike made like 
expeditions to the sources of the Mississippi, Arkansas, Platte 
and Kansas, and thereby really rendered more service to 
Missouri than did the expedition of Lewis and Clark. In 1810 
the journals of travels kept by Pike were published, with maps 
and atlases of the country explored, and extensively read. They 
furnished the first reliable information of the extent and value 
of the new country. After their appearance all complaints were 
hushed about the amount paid for the Louisiana purchase. Pike 
county, in the eastern part of the State was named for this 
energetic explorer. It was because of his well-earned celebrity, 
perhaps, that many people in the Eastern States for a long time 
knew the name of only one county in Missouri and that was 
Pike. 



32 HISTOR Y OF MISSO URL 

CHAPTER IV. 

THE NEW MADRID EARTHQUAKE. 

36. A little after midnight of December 16th, 1811, began a 
series of earthquakes among the most extensive and destructive 
in the world's history. They extended over half a hemisphere. 
Sabrina, one of the Azores Islands, was elevated 360 feet above 
the level of the sea. Caracas, a city of Venezuela of 10,000 
people, Avas totally destroyed and sunk sixty feet under water. 
In America, the center of the earthquake's disturbances, both in 
point of violence and in position, was near New Madrid on the 
Mississippi river, in the southeastern part of Missouri. The 
disturbances extended north to the mouth of the Ohio river, 
south to the mouth of the St. Francois, and far into Arkansas 
and Tennessee. They began in a sudden shock which shook 
down walls, wrecked houses, tore up trees and set many things 
on the surface contrariwise. This was followed by undulations 
of the earth resembling waves, increasing in elevation as they 
advanced, and when they had attained a fearful height, the 
earth would then burst and vast volumes of water, sand and 
pit-coal were thrown up as high as the tops of trees. The earth 
rocked and reeled under men's feet. Fissures were formed, six 
hundred and even seven hundred feet in length, and twenty or 
thirty in breadth. Large oak trees were split in the center and 
forty feet up the trunk, and one part left standing on one side of 
the fissure, and the other part on the other twenty feet distant. 



THE NEW MADRID EARTHQUAKE. 33 

There issued no burning flames, but flashes such as result from 
the explosions of gas. The atmosphere was filled with this thick 
gas, to which the light imparted a purple hue. The waters in 
the Mississippi river suddenly rose several feet. In some places 
trees which had rested on the bottom of the river for perhaps 
centuries, were elevated above the water and yet rested on the 
soil. Other places off the shore suddenly sunk and the water 
overflowed them. The water thrown up during the eruption of 
the ''land waves" was lukewarm, so warm as to produce no 
chilly sensation to persons wading or swimming through it. Many 
fissures, besides the ones described, were of an oval or circular 
form,' forced up to a considerable height, and others formed large 
and deep basins one hundred yards in diameter. 

37. But the most marked features yet remaining of the extent 
of these land disturbances were the great depressions and 
elevations of the surface. Great tracts of country which hitherto 
had been lakes became dry land, and much dry land became 
lakes. Reelfoot Lake, on the opposite side of the river in 
Tennessee, twenty miles long and seven wide, was formed. The 
trunks of dead oaks and cypresses above thirty feet in height 
cover its bottom, over which boats can now be plied without 
interruption. A large extent of country on the Missouri side of 
the river was sunk ten feet below its former elevation. Much of 
the soil was ruined for agricultural purposes, some of it for all 
time. 

38. Afterwards Congress attempted to give relief by passing a 
law granting to each proprietor who had sustained serious loss, 
a section of land in what was known as the ''Boone's Lick 



34 HISTOR Y OF MISSO URL 

country," on condition that he relinquished his desolated farm 
to the Government. Twice as much land was ''located" under 
this law as was ever destroyed in the New Madrid country. The 
''locations" were called New" Madrid claims, and because of their 
conflict with other entries, have been the source of endless 
litigation. 



CHAPTER V. 
OTHER SETTLEMENTS. 



39, Wc have noiv come to the first settlement by people of 
English blood within Missouri. It was in How^ard county, in 
the river bottom- near Franklin, in 1810. The country had been 
previously visited by William Nash and some surveyors in 1804, 
who located claims, and again by Lewis and Clark who explored 
the country and speak of having encountered many rattle- 
snakes there. In 1807 Nathan and Daniel Boone, at this time 
residents in St. Charles county, and sons of the celebrated 
Daniel Boone, began the manufacture of salt at Boone's Lick 
in the western part of w4iat is now Howard county. This they 
shipped down the river in canoes made from logs, hollowed out 
and made water-proof by daubing the open places with clay. 
Col. Benjamin Cooper with his large family joined them in 1808, 
but Governor Lewis informed them that the protection of the 
government from the Indians would not be extended them 



OTHER SETTLEMENTS. 35 

at that distant home, and ordered them to return to the 
Gasconade settlement. This they did, but in 1810 Cooper, 
accompanied by about one hundred and fifty families, mostly 
from Madison county, Kentucky, again came to Howard county, 
and of this great number all settled in Howard except Stephen 
and Hannah Cole who crossed the river and became the first 
settlers of Cooper county, near the present site of Boonville. 

40. Daniel Boone was a man whose like this country perhaps 
will never see again. His father came from England and 
settled in Bucks county, Pennsylvania, where Daniel was born, 
July 14, 1732 (the same year in which George Washington was 
born), and where he received the rudest education. When he 
was eighteen his family moved to North Carolina. In 1769 with 
five hunters he explored the border regions of Kentucky, and 
was captured by the Indians but soon made his escape. In a 
short time he was joined by his brother, and both were captured 
and a companion was killed. They escaped, his brother returned 
to North Carolina and he was left alone in the wilderness with 
only his rifle to gain subsistence and defend himself from the 
Indians. He continued his explorations, and in 1773 he moved 
to Kentucky with seven other families, and was soon employed 
to lay out the lands by Virginia, of which Kentucky was then 
a part, and in commanding the garrisons which had been 
established for fighting the Indians. His life in Kentucky was 
spent in hunting, fighting the Indians, being captured by them 
and escaping. In 1792 he lost all his lands because of defective 
title and quitted Kentucky in disgust. Hearing of very fertile 
lands in Missouri, he came here about 1794 and settled forty-five 



36 HISTOB Y OF MISSO URL 

miles northwest of St. Louis, in what is now Warren county, 

■ m 




DANIEL BOONE. 



There he obtained a grant of ten thousand acres of land, by 



OTHER SETTLEMENTS. 37 

reason of an agreement he formed with Delassus to bring one 
hundred and fifty families into Upper Louisiana from Virginia 
and Kentucky. But the grant was never confirmed because 
Boone failed to get the signature thereto of the direct repre- 
sentative of the Spanish crown. Afterwards Congress granted 
him a thousand acres for his gallant public services. He spent 
most of his latter days with his son, Major Nathan Boone, and 
died in 1820 in his house, a two-story stone, the first of its kind 
in Missouri, some six miles from the Missouri river in St. Charles 
county. His body was buried in a cherry coffin which he had 
prepared himself and kept ready for years. The Legislature 
adjourned for one day out of respect for the old hero. The 
remains of himself and wife were afterwards interred with 
ceremonial pomp at Frankfort, Kentucky, in 1845. His 
descendants in Missouri are numerous and can be found in 
various parts of the State. Only a few years ago one of his 
kindred, the Hon. B. G. Boone, of Clinton, served as Attorney- 
General. 

41. Territorial officers. Wilkinson, the first Governor of the 
Territory of Louisiana, was succeeded in the spring of 1807 by 
Meriwether Lewis, who, while on his way to Washington, 
committed suicide in Tennessee in 1809 by shooting himself. 
President Madison appointed as his successor Gen. Benjamin 
Howard of Lexington, Kentucky. In 1812 Congress passed a 
law by which on the 12th of December of that year Louisiana 
was to be advanced from the first to the second grade of 
Territories, and its name changed to Missouri. The last official 
act of Gov. Howard was to issue a proclamation ordering an 



38 



HISTORY OF MISSOURI. 



election to be held in November for a delegate to Congress and 
for members of the Territorial Legislature to be organized under 
this law. He resigned soon after this to become brigadier- 
general in the army during the war of 1812, and died in St. 
Louis in 1814, having filled his position with commendable 
merit. Howard county, which was settled while he was 
Governor, was named in his honor. He was succeeded by 

Captain William Clark, of the 
celebrated expedition of Lewis 
and Clark, who served as Gov- 
ernor till Missouri was admitted 
into the Union. No man ever 
in the West had more influence 
over the Indians than did ''Red- 
c-- head," the name by which 
Clark was known. He stood 
between them and the whites 
for years, was always their 
trusted friend and averted many 
a threatened invasion by them 
and succeeded in amicably purchasing their lands for the United 
States or obtaining them by treaty. Edward Hempstead of St. 
Louis was elected the first delegate to Congress in 1812 and was 
the first delegate to that body from west of the Mississippi river. 
He was succeeded in 1815 by Rufus Easton, and he in 1817 by 
John Scott, who served till Missouri became a State. All were 
honorable and able men. By an act of 1816 Missouri was 
advanced to the third or highest grade of territorial government. 




Vn\V ^^^ \ 

CAPTAIN WILLIAM CLARK. 



OTHER SETTLEMENTS. 39 

42. The settlement about Boone's Lick grew rapidly. However, 
the Indians, especially the Pottawatomies and Foxes, stole the 
settlers' horses and kept them in almost constant alarm. Five 
different forts were built for their protection, but nevertheless 
many of the prominent men were killed, some of them in their 
own houses. Yet there was no power to avenge their wrongs or 
to prevent these recurrences except the strength of their own 
arms, for this part of the Territory at that time was beyond the 
organized jurisdiction of any government. In 1816 Franklin — 
now known as Old Franklin — was laid off opposite the present 
site of Boonville. It was the first town of any importance west 
of St. Charles. It grew rapidly and soon came to have con- 
siderable population. Indeed, for many years Franklin was the 
center of societ}^ and commerce for all that class of immigrants 
who came from the older States and who for the most part 
settled, not in St. Louis and south of it along the Mississippi, 
but in what soon became Howard county. Among its inhab- 
itants were men who afterwards became the most prominent 
Governors and useful Supreme Judges of the State. It was for 
many years a Government land-office, with Thos. A. Smith as 
Receiver and Charles Carroll as Register. It had the first 
newspaper published west of St. Louis, which still lives in the 
^'Columbia Statesman." The old town has long since been 
mostly washed away by the encroachings of the Missouri river. 

43. Howard county t(^as organized in 1816. It at first included 
all that territory from which have since been carved thirty-one 
counties, twelve south of the Missouri river and nineteen north 
of it. For this reason it is yet known as the ''mother of 



40 HISTOR Y OF MISSO URL 

counties." Its seat of justice was first Cole's Fort, on the south 
side of the river in Cooper county; in 1817, it was removed to 
Franklin and in 1823 to Fayette. It was long the center of 
political influence in the State and before the war ^'Howard 
county, the mother of Missouri Democracy," was frequently 
heard. Around Franklin as a center, population rapidly 
increased, and in a few years it had spread out into what 
afterwards became Boone, Callaway, Cooper and Chariton 
counties. All central Missouri was being rapidly transformed 
from a wilderness into happy homes. 

44. The Wen- of 1812 ended in 1815. At its close immigra- 
tion to Missouri set in more rapidly than perhaps was ever 
elsewhere known in tlie United States up to that time. The 
rush was greatest from Virginia, Kentucky, North Carolina and 
Tennessee. As many as one hundred persons are said to have 
''passed through St. Charles in one day on their way to Boone's 
Lick, and this rate was kept up for many days together." Many 
of these ''movers" brought with them a hundred head of cattle, 
besides hogs, horses and sheep and from three to twelve slaves. 
These long trains presented a sight which will never be seen in 
this country again. It was long before the day of railroads and 
just before the time of steamboats. There was the huge wagon 
filled with the family's "plunder," drawn by three or four yoke 
of oxen. Next came the herds of cattle and sheep, each with 
many bells, making a beautiful chime, and as this mingled with 
the dull thud of the wagon, the coarse voice of the herder and 
driver, a peculiar impression was made which only those can 
appreciate who have heard it. At night the family would camp 



OTHER SETTLEMENTS. 41 

around the fire, the cattle would lie down and ruminate, the 
''movers" would recount the thrilling incidents of the day, the 
slaves joining in, and, whenever an opportunity offered, telling 
strangers of the "quality" of their families. 

45. When the immigrant arrived at ]iis journey's end^ his first 
business was to look him out a farm. Though land speculators 
had done much to confuse titles to the soil, yet land was 
abundant, and with no great toil each man could "open him up 
a farm." A log cabin was easily raised^ and the land fenced 
with what was known as a "Virginia rail fence." Until his 
first crop was raised, he could easily obtain a subsistence for 
himself and family by hunting and trapping. At that time the 
forests, and even prairies, which were covered with a high 
luxuriant grass, abounded in deer, bear, wolves, panthers, wild 
cats, wild turkeys and various small game. The flesh of some of 
these, such as the deer and bear, furnished him food, and their 
skins were made into serviceable clothes. While his lot was 
romantic yet it required stern hardihood to endure it. The 
Indians were about him and were not always friendly. The 
fiercer wild animals attacked his young cattle, and often carried 
away his lambs and pigs. He had but few books and papers, 
schools were rare, and only occasionally did he hear the Gospel 
preached, but his hardships inspired him with self-confidence 
and a purpose of character, which yet mark his descendants. 

46. His log cabin differed somewhat from the houses of the 
French settlers. The posts were not set upright and slats nailed 
horizontally to them, as was the fashion with the French settler, 
but instead, he generally used large logs, hewn into shape, and 



42 HISTOR Y OF MISSO URL 

fitted into one another by means of notches in the ends. These 
were hiid one on another, and the spaces between were filled 
with pieces of wood called ' 'chinking" and around these was 
daubed a plaster made of clay. The door was made of heayy 
cross-pieces and rough -hewn boards. They were hung on 
wooden hinges and fastened on the inside with a wooden latch. 
The latch could be raised from the outside by a string attached 
to it which passed through a hole in the door aboye the latch. 
To lock the door was simply to draw the string inside, and so 
''my latch-string always hangs on the outside" became a popular 
term of hospitality and an assurance of welcome to the neighbor 
or passing stranger. The windows were without glass. The 
light was admitted by a shutter which stood ajar, or through 
greased paper attached to a frame- work something like a sash. 
Sometimes the cabin was thirty feet square, and if two rooms 
were built a wide hall ran between, and the larger room was 
called the "big house." As the farmer grew wealthier, popula- 
tion increased and the means of transportation improyed, all 
these things gaye way to the conyeniences of modern life. 

47. He had Utile money, and indeed had need for but little. 
He raised his own food. The materials for his clothing were 
grown in his fields or sheared from his flocks and were conyerted 
into cloth and made into garments by the women of the house- 
hold. What trading he did was mere barter; that is, the 
exchange of one article for another. Peltries, lead and its 
product in the shape of shot, were used in the place of money. 
There were Spanish dollars, howeyer, and these were often cut 
into halves, quarters, and even eighths, which, because of their 



OTHER SETTLEMENTS. 43 

small size, came to be called ''bits." For any less amount pins, 
needles, sheets of writing paper, and other articles of small 
value were used. 

48. But agriculture was not the only pursuit. Lead was 
produced in great abundance. ''One million five hundred 
thousand pounds were annually turned out by the Maramec 
mines alone, which gave employment to three hundred and fifty 
hands, exclusive of smelters, blacksmiths and others." Much 
of it was turned into shot and a tower for that purpose was 
erected at Ste. Genevieve. The fur trade was very large. As 
early as 1804 it amounted to two hundred thousand dollars per 
annum. Large trading companies, with headquarters in St. 
Louis, were organized, which sent out trappers along almost 
every tributary of the Missouri to the Rocky mountains. 

49. In 1811, The New Orleans, the first steamboat built west of 
the Alleghany mountains, made the trip from Pittsburgh to 
New Orleans. This settled forever the question of the use of 
steam as a motive power on the western waters. In the next 
eight years sixty-three steamers were built and plied on the Ohio 
and Mississippi. On the second of August, 1817, the first steam- 
boat that ever ascended the Mississippi above the mouth of the 
Ohio arrived at St. Louis. Its name was "General Pike" and 
its master was Jacob Read. On May 28th, 1819, the Inde- 
pendence, the first steamboat to ascend the Missouri, arrived at 
Franklin, having been twelve days on the journey from St. 
Louis. Soon after this steamboats became common on these 
rivers, and their appearance, which was at first dazzling, became 
familiar sights. They added a new impetus to commerce and 



44 HISTOR Y OF MISSO URL 

assisted much in the speedy delivery of the mails. Yet these 
conveniences could scarcely be compared to our modern rail- 
roads. It usually took a letter from four to six weeks to come 
from New York or Washington, and the postage on a single 
letter, even many years afterwards, w^as twenty-five cents. 

60. The last feiv years before Missouri's admission into the 
Union was a season of severe trial in finances. The year 1818 
found nearly everybody in debt. The Bank of St. Louis was 
established in 1816, and the next year the Bank of Missouri, 
with a capital of $250,000, was organized. These for a time 
increased the volume of business, but also aided the spirit of 
speculation in land and accelerated other ventures. Government 
land was sold for two dollars an acre, one-fourth cash and the 
rest in payments of two, three and four years. So great was the 
mania for speculation in land, that rarely none but the first 
payment was made. Dealing at the stores was also upon credit. 
Payments were made with promissory notes or bank notes, which 
were considered as good as cash. These of course drove out the 
coin ; and when the day of final settlement came there was no 
money with which to make payments. Land and all kinds of 
farm products, though abundant, were unsalable. The Terri- 
torial Legislature tried to give relief by issuing certificates which 
were made receivable for taxes and debts of every kind due the 
State. The courts set this act aside, and for doing so were of 
course summarily abused, but relief came in time, though slowly, 
as is usual after such depressions. 

51. Population of the entire territory now known as Missouri 
was about 20,000 in 1810. In 1820 it was 66,000. The popula- 



OTHER SETTLEMENTS. 45 

tion of St. Louis in 1811 was about 1,400, ' 'composed of a 
motley mixture of Canadian-French, a few Spaniards and other 
Europeans, and a somewhat larger proportion of Americans." 
In 1820 it was 4,928. Of the population of this territory in 1820 
about 10,000 were slaves. The number of counties increased 
from five to fifteen in the ten years preceding 1820. 



46 IIISTOR Y OF MISSO URL 



PART III. 

IVIISSOURI AS A SXAXE. 

CHAPTER I. 
THE ADMISSION OF MISSOURI INTO THE UNION. 

52. The Territorial Legislature made application for the 
admission of Missouri into the Union as a State in 1818. The 
application produced a violent sectional issue in American 
politics. It opened up a long acrimonious struggle between the 
North and South for political supremacy in the nation. That 
struggle, attended with bitterness from its beginning, continued 
up to the time of the civil war, through that w^ar, and has 
scarcely ended even yet. The people of Missouri wished to 
decide for themselves whether slavery should exist in the State. 
To this the North urged two strong objections. 

53. The first was, the people were sure to permit slavery. It 
existed in the Territory at the time of the application ; had been 
there for fifty years, and nothing was surer than that the people 
would not voluntarily abolish it. Slavery had never existed 
north of the Ohio river, above the latitude of which lies most of 
Missouri. The admission of Missouri would be a precedent. If 



THE ADMISSION OF MISSOURI INTO THE UNION 47 

the privilege were given to her people to decide upon the 
existence of slavery within her borders, so must, it be extended 
to the whole Louisiana purchase. Missouri was on the border 
line between free and slave labor. The question, then, was 
whether Congress would interfere with the further extension of 
slavery. If permitted to exist in Missouri, without some 
limitations now agreed upon, it might, by the voice of the 
people, exist in all the Louisiana purchase. Against its further 
extension many citizens throughout the North protested in the 
name of freedom, humanity and a higher civilization. 

64. The second objection was, the admission of Missouri 
would turn over the control of the nation from the North to the 
South. It was also the real objection, the one which did most 
in controlling the northern members in Congress. The Union 
had been originally formed of seven free and six slave States. 
Up to February 1819 there had always been one more free than 
slave States, there being at this time ten of the former and nine 
of the latter. The free States had acquired a large and constantly 
increasing predominance in Congress. This was the political 
situation when early in 1819 Missouri and Alabama made 
application to become States. Both were slave Territories, both 
had been settled by emigrants mostly from slave States, and of 
course it was assumed that their political affiliations would be 
with the South. If admitted, the number of slave States would 
be increased from nine to eleven, while the free States would 
remain ten. This would give the South the mastery in Congress. 

55. Alabama. — Georgia had ceded Alabama's territory, and 
in doing so had made stipulations in regard to slavery, which 



48 HISTORY OF MISSOURI. 

were regarded by Congress as deciding that slavery as a form of 
labor might exist in that State. Accordingly Alabama was 
admitted without opposition as a slave State. This made the 
number of Northern and Southern States exactly the same. The 
fight for political supremacy, therefore, was not made over 
Alabama but Missouri, which lay much further north, and was 
supposed to be connectional ground between the free soil and 
slave territory, and might, therefore, be claimed by either. The 
South espoused the cause of the people of Missouri because it 
wished to gain political ascendency 'in Congress and because it 
was intimately interested in the extension of slavery. 

56. The struggle for the admission of Missouri was precipitated 
in Congress by a resolution of Mr. Tallmadge of New York: 
"That the further introduction of slavery shall be prohibited; 
and that all children born within the State after the admission 
thereof shall be free at the age of twenty-five years." This led 
to a long discussion in which hot and bitter words were bandied 
to and fro with frequency. It will be remembered that when the 
contract of purchase was signed, transferring Louisiana from 
France to the United States, article third, written by the great 
Napoleon, provided that "the inhabitants of the ceded territory, 
shall be incorporated into the Union of the United States, and 
admitted as soon as possible, according to the principles of the 
Federal Constitution, to the enjoyment of all the rights, 
advantages, and immunities of citizens of the United States, and 
in the meantime they shall be maintained and protected in the 
free enjoyment of their liberty, property and the religion which 
they profess." This contract with this article in it, was accepted 



THE ADMISSION OF MISSOURI INTO THE UNION. 49 

in 1803 by Congress. It was now seized upon by the opponents 
of the TaUmadge resolution as having settled the question of 
slavery in Missouri before her application for admission. Slaves, 
it was contended, were property. Slavery existed in the Territory 
when the terms of purchase from Napoleon were signed, when 
those terms were accepted by Congress, and had been here ever 
since. If, therefore, slavery was to be prohibited there it should 
be left to the State itself to do so. Besides it was further con- 
tended that these terms of purchase were exactly similar in their 
tenor to the stipulations Georgia had made wh^n ceding Alabama, 
and which stipulations obtained for that State the right to abolish 
or maintain slavery as she pleased. 

57. To deny 3Iissouri the same right was, therefore, to take 
from her her dignity as one of a Union of equal States, to make 
her yield to conditions which had never before been imposed on 
any State, and which would not now be attempted in her case if 
the free still outnumbered the slave States. This point was 
urged with great ability by John Scott, Missouri's delegate then 
in Congress, who felt that to deprive the people of the right of 
choosing their own local institutions was a humiliating condition, 
and violated the old maxim that ''all just governments derive 
their powers from the consent of the governed." In reply to him 
it was held that slavery existed only by virtue of a local law ; 
that it had never been sanctioned by national laws, and that on 
the contrary the Constitution had from the first implied an 
opposition to it, in that it contained an agreement that the slave- 
trade should cease in 1808. The supporters of the Tallmadge 
resolution further held that slavery was not only a moral wrong. 



50 HISTORY OF MISSOURI. 

a political evil, a commercial weakness, but it was contrary to 
universal freedom which must necessarily inhere in a republic. 
These views were so discordant that one would scarcely suppose 
a compromise for the admission could ever be reached. Yet 
such vv'as the fact. 

58. The Missouri Compromise. This was accomplished by the 
application of Maine for admission in December 1819, and while 
Missouri's case yet seemed hopeless. Maine would of course be 
a free State. Had she applied for admission at the same 
time Alabama and Missouri did, perhaps all the contention of 
which we have spoken would never iiave arisen. Then, admitting 
the three at once, the free would not have been outnumbered by 
the slave States. As it was, those in favor of letting Missouri 
settle the question of slavery for herself declared both Missouri 
and Maine should be admitted without regard to slavery or both 
kept out. This brought on a dead-lock in Congress, which 
lasted for weeks and finally ended in a measure known as the 
''Missouri Compromise." This was an agreement that Maine 
should be brought into the Union ; that Missouri should settle 
for herself the question of the existence of slavery within her 
territory ; and that slavery should forever be prohibited from all 
other territory "north of thirty-six degrees and thirty minutes 
north latitude" which was the south line of Missouri. The 
agreement was implied, though not expressed, that Missouri 
shoi.ld be admitted into the Union according to this agreement. 
This compromise opened up the way for Missouri's admission. 
In 1857, long after that was accomplished, the Supreme Court of 
the United States declared this compromise, by which slavery 



THE ADMISSION OF MISSOURI INTO THE UNION. 51 

was excluded north of thirty-six degrees and thirty minutes, 
unconstitutional, and that therefore the South had no right to 
yield to it and the North no right to ask it. 

59. But the people of Missouri accepted the compromise as 
final, and hegan at once to form a State government. A con- 
vention to frame a constitution met in a hotel, known as the 
* 'Mansion House," in St. Louis, early in June, 1820. David 
Barton was elected president. Among its members were some 
very able men. Some of them were afterwards very prominent 
in the affairs of the State, such as David Barton, Edward Bates, 
Alexander McNair, Thos. Riddick, John Rice Jones, Duff Green, 
Pierre Chouteau, Jr., Benjamin Reeves, A. Buckner, John D. Cooke 
and John Scott. There were in all forty-one members. They 
were in session a little over a month, and spent for stationery 
$26.25 and framed a constitution which in some respects was 
superior to any Missouri has since had. It withstood all attempts 
to supplant it by another until 1865 when the war-time emergency 
articles, called the ''Drake Constitution," replaced it. It took 
effect immediately without submission to a vote of the people. 
This constitution was to pass through the fiery ordeal of being 
approved by Congress before Missouri could become a State. As 
had been supposed all along, the constitution permitted the 
existence of slavery. It was reasonably and properly supposed 
by the people of Missouri and by the South that the Northern 
delegates had consented to this by the agreement known as the 
Missouri Compromise. But now when the State claimed a ful- 
fillment of this promise Congress would not stand to the agree- 
ment, and hence a second compromise had to be agreed upon. 



52 HISTOR Y OF MISSO URL 

60. One clause of Missouri's Constitution stipulated its legis- 
lature should enact a law to '^prevent free negroes and mulattoes 
from coming to and settling in the State." This clause it was 
now contended was contrary to a provision of the federal con- 
stitution which guaranteed to 'Hhe citizens of each State the 
privileges and immunities of citizens in the several States." 
The members of Congress from the North held that free negroes 
were recognized as citizens in some of the old States and hence 
this clause in Missouri's constitution was in conflict with the 
federal constitution. It will be remembered that it is made the 
duty, by that same constitution, of the Supreme Court of the 
United States to determine what State laws are in conflict with 
it, and when any law is found to be so it is void from the time of 
its enactment. Why Congress should desire to assume the 
functions of this high judiciary is not explicable except on 
political grounds. 

61. The claim led to an absurdity. If one State could declare 
a certain class of men '^citizens" and then the constitution should 
come in and say all the other States should therefore acknowledge 
them as citizens too, and should extend to these citizens all 
the privileges and immunities of citizens of each of these 
respective States, of course there would be no limit to citizenship. 
Free negroes would not alone be citizens. One State might 
declare a Chinaman or an Indian a citizen, and by this claim all 
the other States must acknowledge him a citizen, and must have 
nothing in their laws which would not allow him ''all the 
privileges and immunities" of any of their own residents. This 
of course led to an absurdity. The object of the clause in the 



THE ADMISSION OF MISSOURI INTO THE UNION. 53 

Missouri constitution was to keep an undesirable class of persons 
from settling within her borders. Illinois had exactly the same 
law as late as 1846, and Congress at no time attempted to 
interfere with it. This clause, however, was the subject for long 
and bitter discussion in the House. The Senate saw the absurdity 
and dishonesty of such opposition and soon became in favor of 
admission. 

62. It was at this time that the great Henry Clay of Kentucky 
came to the rescue. He has been called the author of the 
^'Missouri Compromise." *This is a mistake. Mr. Thomas of 
Illinois was the author of that measure, yet Mr. Clay gave it his 
powerful support. But he was the author of the second com- 
promise. He induced the House to agree to leave the provision 
for the admission of the State to a committee of twenty-three 
members from the House — the then number of States — to act 
jointly with a committee from the Senate. This committee 
reported to the House a resolution admitting Missouri whenever 
her legislature should pass a Solemn Public Act repealing the 
clause in reference to the exclusion of free negroes and mulattoes, 
and when this was done the President should proclaim her 
admitted. This resolution passed the Senate by a vote of 
twenty-eight to fourteen, and the House by a vote of eighty-six 
to eighty-two. 

63. The Solemn Public Act. Then the Governor of Missouri 
called the Legislature together to pass the ^'Solemn Public Act." 
It first spoke of the absurdity of Congress in demanding it, 
declared if any clause in the State constitution was in conflict 
with the federal constitution, that clause was therefore void and 



54 HISTOR Y OF MISSO URL 

had always been ; but ''to give to the world the most unequivocal 
proof of her desire to promote the peace and harmony of the 
Union," it there ''solemnly and publicly declared and enacted" 
that no part "of the constitution of this State shall ever be con- 
strued to authorize the passage of any law by which any citizen 
of either of the United States shall be excluded from the enjoy- 
ment of any of the privileges and immunities to which such 
citizens are entitled under the constitution of the United States." 
A certified copy of this Act was sent to President Monroe. He 
promptly issued a proclamation declaring the admission of the 
State complete. The precise date thereof was August 10th, 1821. 
Thus ended for a time a struggle which had not up to that time 
had a parallel in the admission of any other State. 



CHAPTER II, 



FIRST YEARS AS A STATE. 



64. The first election, under the new constitution, was held on 
the fourth Monday of August, 1820. Political parties did not 
divide the voters. On the contrary, the personal popularity and 
merits of the several candidates determined the result, for the 
most part. Alexander McNair and William Clark, both of St. 
Louis, were the candidates for Governor. The latter had been 
the Territorial Governor for eight years. He was now defeated 



FIRST YEARS AS A STATE. 



55 



"by a majority of 4,020 votes in a total vote of 9,132. William 
H. Ashley of St. Louis was elected Lieutenant-Governor. The 
State government in all its branches did not immediately go into 
effect. It was far into the year 1821 before either the Circuit 
or Supreme courts were in operation. 

65. First Governor. — Alexander McNair was born in Penn- 
sylvania in 1774, and received a fair English education. His 
parents died about the time he became of age, and he and his 
brother agreed upon the division of their estate in a novel 
manner — that whosoever should 
be victor in a fair encounter 
should be owner of the home- 
stead. Alexander received a 
severe whipping at the hands 
of his brother, to which he 
afterwards acknowledged he 
owed the honor of being Gov- 
ernor of Missouri. In 1804, he 
moved to St. Louis, and for a 
number of years was United 
States Commissary for that 
station. In the city tax-list of 
1811, he appears as taxed for 
one of the nineteen ''carriages for pleasure" then held in that 
city. During the war of 1812, he was colonel of Missouri 
militia in the United States service. He was elected Governor 
in 1820, and held office till 1824, and died in St. Louis in 1826. 
He was a man of great popularity and strict integrity. 




ALEXANDER MCNAIR. 



56 HISTOR Y OF MISSO URL 

66. The General Assembly, which is the name given the 
legislative branch of the State government, was composed at its 
first session of fourteen Senators and forty-three Representatives, 
At that session, which met in St. Louis in September, 1820,, 
acts were passed creating the counties of Boone, Callaway, 
Chariton, Cole, Gasconade, Lafayette, Perry, Ralls, Ray and 
Saline. Most of these were carved from the territory first 
embraced in Howard county. David Barton and Thomas Hart 
Benton were elected LTnited States Senators. They were not 
allowed to take their seats in the Senate however until 1821,, 
because the State was not j^et admitted into the Laiion. Mr. 
Barton was a native of Tennessee and was a soldier in the war of 
1812. He had served as judge of the circuit court a short time 
about 1816, but had no brilliant career as a jurist. He was a 
fluent orator and a man of resplendent genius. At the time of 
the admission of Missouri he was the most popular man in the 
State. He was chairman of the convention that framed the State 
constitution and was unanimously elected to the Senate in 1821 
and re-elected in 1825. During his last term he became unpopular 
in the State because of his espousal of the cause of John Quincy 
Adams for the Presidency against General Jackson, who was a 
great favorite in Missouri. Accordingly, in 1833 he was defeated 
as a candidate for Congress, but afterwards served one term in 
the State Senate. Toward the close of his life he became insane 
and died near Boonville in 1837. 

67. Col. Benton was elected United States Senator with Mr, 
Barton, but not without great opposition. Mr. Benton had been 
a resident of Tennessee, had there been a member of th^ Legis- 



FIRST YEARS AS A STATE. 57 

lature, and attained to the rank of colonel as commander of a 
Tennessee regiment in the war of 1812. But his brother, Jesse 
Benton, and Amos Carroll had there fought a duel. Andrew 
Jackson had earnestly espoused the cause of Carroll, which led 
Thomas Benton to vigorously denounce Jackson. In return 
Jackson attempted to horsewhij) Benton on the streets of Nash- 
ville, and was shot in the arm by Jesse Benton. This made the 
Bentons very unpopular in Tennessee, and in 1813 Mr. Benton 
came to Missouri. In 1817 he had a very noted duel with 
Charles Lucas, at that time United States attorney for the district 
of Missouri, and a son of the first chief justice of. the Territory. 
Lucas was about twenty-five years old, and Benton was about 
forty. Lucas had challenged Benton, and when the fight came 
off was wounded in the neck but not killed. He expressed him- 
self as satisfied. Then Benton in a violent rage demanded of. 
Lucas that they fight till one or the other was killed. This they 
afterwards did and Lucas was killed. In the minds of many 
people this action of Mr. Benton was regarded as murder, and 
lost him many friends in the new State. He was opposed for the 
Senate by his adversary's father, Judge Lucas, and the balloting 
ran through several days without a choice. Finally Mr. Barton 
said he preferred Benton for his associate. He was accordingly 
elected, and served for thirty years, the longest term ever 
extended to any Senator by any State. 

68. The first Congressman. Missouri was then entitled to 
only one Congressman. John Scott was elected. He had for 
some time been the Territorial delegate and was a man of ability. 
He was born in Virginia, in 1782, graduated at Princeton 



58 HISTOR Y OF MISSO URl 

College in 1805, and soon afterwards settled at Ste. Genevieve, 
Missouri ; was a delegate to Congress from the Territory of 
Missouri from 1817 to 1821 and then a Representative in 
Congress till 1827, where he took high rank as a man of educated 
talent and hold integrity. When the contest came up in the 
House of Representatives for the election of a President he voted 
for John Quincy Adams, and was supported in his action by 
Senator Barton, but opposed by Mr. Benton, who favored 
Jackson. As a consequence Scott was never again returned to 
Congress. Nor did he ever again enter politics. He devoted 
himself studiously to the practice of law, and for forty years had 
a practice which extended over a great part of the State. 

69. The Supreme Court. By the terms of the constitution 
the judges of the Supreme and Circuit courts were to be 
appointed by the Governor, and the appointments confirmed 
by the Senate. This law remained in force till 1851, when 
it was changed, and judges thereafter were elected just as 
other officers. The first members of the Supreme Court were 
Mathias McGirk of Montgomery county, John D. Cook of 
Cape Girardeau, and John Rice Jones of Pike county. They 
were all men of great probity and judicial learning, and were 
elected without any regard to their politics. Mr. McGirk 
remained a member of the court until 1841. Mr. Cook resigned 
within a year or two, and Judge Jones died in 1824. Both 
had been members of the constitutional convention. Mr. 
Jones had also been very prominent in the Territorial days 
as a member and president of the Legislative Council. He 
was the first English lawyer resident within the country now 



FIRST YEARS AS A STATE. 



59 



called Illinois, having settled at Vincennes in 1787. He came 
to Missouri in 1808, and afterwards settled at Potosi, where 
he became the partner of Moses 
Austin, the man who gave his 
name to the capital of Texas. 
George Tompkins was appointed 
in place of Mr. Jones, and 
served till 1845, twenty - one 
years, and then retired, having 
become sixty - five years old, 
beyond which age no person was 
then legally capable of being 
judge. He had in early man- 
hood been a school teacher, and 
about 1810 conducted the only 
English school in St. Louis, but 

afterwards located in Franklin, Howard county 
appointed to the Supreme Court from that place. 

70. The State Seal. The constitution of Missouri provided 
that the Secretary of State should procure a seal of the State 
with suitable emblems and devices, ''which should not be 
subject to change." The Legislature of 1822 directed what 
the devices and emblems should be, and the present seal was 
fashioned and has been in use since. The following is a 
description of it: On a circular shield equally divided by a 
perpendicular line, is a red field on the right side, in which 
is the grizzly bear of Missouri. Above, separated by a wave 
or curved line, is a white or silver crescent in an azure field. 




JOHN RICE JONES. 



and was 



60 



HISTORY OF MISSOURI. 



On the left, on a white field are the arms of the United States. 
A band surrounds the escutcheon, on which are the words, 

''United we stand, 
divided we fall." For 
the crest, over a yellow 
or golden helmet, full- 
faced and grated with 
six bars, is a silver star, 
and above it is a con- 
stellation of twenty -three 
smaller stars — Missouri 
being the twenty-fourth 
State to unite with the 
Union, the large star 
represents her and the 
other stars the rest of 
the Union. The supporters are two grizzly bears, standing on 
a scroll on which is inscribed the motto of the State, "Salus 
populi suprema lex es/o" — let the welfare of the people be 
the supreme law. Underneath the scroll are the numerals, 
MDCCCXX., which was the year of the adoption of the first 
constitution. Around the entire circle are the words, ''The 
Great Seal of the State of Missouri." This seal is still kept in 
the office of the Secretary of State and is stamped on every 
contract to which the State becomes a party. 

71. Rufus Easton. — One of the most noted men in Missouri 
throughout the entire Territorial period and long after she 
became a State, was Rufus Easton of St. Louis. He was born 




FIRST YEARS AS A STATE. 



61 



in Connecticut in 1774, and came to Missouri in 1804, having 
previously distinguished himself as a lawyer in New York, and 
was the same year appointed a Terrritorial judge of the United 
States Court. Two years later he became the attorney of the 
court, and in 1808 became the 
first postmaster of St. Louis. 
He continued to practice law 
and soon became the leading 
lawyer of the Territory. In 1813 
he went to Congress, and was suc- 
ceeded two years later by Edward 
Hempstead. Upon the organiza- 
tion of the State government he 
became Attorney-General and held 
the office till 1826. He died in 
St. Charles in 1834. No man in all 
the early Missouri history was more 
thoroughly devoted to, and in- 
fluential in, up-building the moral, 
social and commercial life of the people. As a lawyer, he 
had no peer in the Territorial days, and as a man of upright 
conduct he did more than any other person in exposing the 
conspiracy of Aaron Burr. 




: U' 



RUFUS EASTON. 



62 HISTOR Y OF MISSO URL 

CHAPTER III. 

BATES AND MILLER— 1824-32. 

72. The second Governor was Frederick Bates of St. Louis. 
He had been prominent in the Territorial days and was a 
member of the constitutional convention. His opponent was 
William H. Ashley, who had been Lieutenant-Governor during 
McNair's administration, and because of his daring intrepidity 
in advancing the fur-trade into the Rocky mountains and in 
fighting the Indians, had invested his character with much 
romance. But Bates was successful. Before Mr. Bates had 
served a year as Governor, the people were called upon to mourn 
his death. Benjamin Reeves of Howard county had been elected 
Lieutenant-Governor along with him, and of course the office of 
Governor would have fallen to him had he not resigned before 
the death of Governor Bates. Under the law, therefore, the 
office devolved on the President of the Senate pro tempore, who 
at that time was Abraham J. Williams of Columbia, and who at 
once began to exercise the duties of Governor. He proclaimed a 
special election to be held December 8th, 1825, which resulted in 
the election of John Miller of Howard county, who served out 
the remainder of the term. A strange coincidence in the lives 
of Williams and Miller was that neither of them was ever 
married. The case of Mr. Williams was the only one in the 
history of the State in which the President of the Senate pro 
tempore became Governor. He served until January 20th, 1826. 



BATE 8 AND MILLER— 1S2 4-32. 



63 



73. Frederick Bates was born in Goochland county, Virginia, 
in 1777. His education was begun in a private family school and 
ended in an academy. He studied law and at the age of twenty 
went to Detroit, a military post, and became its postmaster. In 
1805 he was appointed by President 
Jefferson the first judge of the 
Territory of Michigan. In 1806 he 
moved to St. Louis, and from that 
time till Missouri became a State 
Mr. Bates was continually in some 
capacity a Territorial officer. He 
was Secretary of the Territory 
under Governors Lewis, Howard 
and Clark, and during the interims 
between their administrations he 
was acting Governor, and also 
during their protracted absence 
from the Territory. In 1808 he 
compiled the ''Laws of the Territory of Louisiana," the first 
book printed in St. Louis. In 1824 he was elected Governor 
to succeed McNair, without any solicitation or effort on his part. 
He died August 4th, 1825. 

74. Dueling had become a threatening evil among the promi- 
nent men of Missouri, and had greatly shocked public sensibility. 
Many of the duels had been fought on an island in the Mississippi 
river below St. Louis, which was long afterwards known as 
"Bloody Island." During the administration of Governor Bates 
the Legislature undertook to break up this barbarous practice 




FREDERICK BATES. 



64 HISTOR Y OF MISSO URL 

by making it odious. A bill passed botb bouses making the 
''whipping post" the mode of punishment. But the Governor 
vetoed the bill because he could not approve of whipping as the 
penalty. In his veto message he said: ''I am happy to record 
my utter detestation and abhorrence of dueling. My duty to my 
neighbors and myself would compel me, if possible, to put down 
so barbarous and so impious a practice." After his veto the bill 
failed to pass. This is the first recorded veto by a Governor of 
Missouri of which we have any knowledge. 

75. The Visit of La Fayette. The year 1825 was made memor- 
able by the visit of Marquis de La Fayette, and his son George 
Washington La Fayette, to St. Louis. This great man, after an 
absence of fifty years in his own beloved France, had, on the 
invitation of the President of the United States, made a visit to 
the country whose independence he had done so much to win. 
While his own land had been filled with tumult, war and 
poverty, he now found the thirteen Colonies developed into a 
strong young nation of twenty-six States, happy, prosperous and 
free. He visited every State, and in St. Louis, with its largely 
French population, he was received with great favor. His 
entrance into the city was an ovation — not like the triumph 
of a military conqueror, but like that of a devoted father 
and patriarch returning to his own after a long absence in a 
patriotic trust elsewhere. He came up the Mississippi, landed 
at the city on April 29th, 1825, where half of its population 
had assembled to meet him, all familiar with his name, and 
many of them of the same nationality and familiar with his 
language. 



BA TES AND MILLEB—1 82 4-32 . 65 

76. TJte capital of Missouri was fixed by the constitution 
on the Missouri river., within forty miles of the mouth of the 
Osage (see map). Congress had granted the State four sections 
of hand to be used for the seat of government. The first session 
of the General Assembly had appointed a commission of five 
men to locate the capital. After long and weary examinations 
Jefferson City was chosen and the first session of the Legislature 
met there in 1826. Prior thereto it had held its sessions in 
St. Charles. The State-house was begun in 1823, at Jefferson 
City, on the site now occupied by the Governor's mansion, and 
was completed by 1826, at a cost of $25,000. It burned down in 
1837, and the present building was in part erected the next year 
from stone taken from quarries at the edge of the bluff only a 
few rods from the Capitol. This building was enlarged in 1887, 
the whole structure having cost not less than $600,000. It is 
one of the finest in all the States. 

77. In 1828 General Miller was re-elected Governor, without 
opposition. The Adams part}^, which was now beginning to 
be called the Whig party, had no candidate. Daniel Dunklin 
of Potosi was elected Lieutenant-Governor. Miller's adminis- 
tration was most satisfactory to the people. He was born in 
Berkeley county, Virginia, November 25th, 1781, reared on a 
farm, and had the advantage of a common school education 
only. He evinced his predilection for militar}^ life when a 
boy by always ' 'playing soldier," and his ability to lead by 
always being captain of his company. In the early part of the 
present century he located at Steuben ville, Ohio, where he edited 
and published the ''Western Herald" and "Steubenville Gazette 



>> 



66 



HISTORY OF MISSOURI. 



While thus engaged, he was appointed general of the State 
militia of Ohio, and held the rank of colonel in the United 
States army throughout the war of 1812. He commanded the 
19th United States Infantry and was assigned to duty under 
Gen. William Henry Harrison. In May, 1813, while General 
Harrison was collecting forces at Fort Meigs (pro. Megs) for 
the purpose of invading Canada, General Procter of the British 

army, under the cover of night, 
erected a hattery of six guns 
so near the fort as to make its 
dislodgment necessary by General 
Harrison. Instead of assuming 
the responsibility of a commander 
and ordering the troops to take the 
battery. General Harrison called 
a council of war, and asked each 
colonel if he could or would take 
that battery. When Col. John 
Miller was called, he was in- 
dignant at what he regarded as 
General Harrison's unmilitary deportment, and without making 
excuse, replied (using the identical words which afterwards 
became so famous), '^I'll try. Sir." He was given a detachment 
of 350 men, a part of whom were regulars, and the remainder 
volunteers and Kentucky militia. These brave soldiers attacked 
a body of British regulars and Indians, of more than double their 
number; but the impetuosity of their charge was irresistible, 
and after a severe struggle they drove the enemy from the 




JOHN MILLER. 



BA TES AND MILLEB—1 82 4-32 . 67 

batteries. They spiked the cannon, took a large number of 
prisoners, and having fully accomplished his object, Miller 
returned in triumph to the fort. The engagement was one of 
the most bloody and desperate of the whole war, and its brilliant 
success was due to his intrepid gallantry. Ten months later 
Col. James Miller of the 6tli United States Infantry, under 
similar circumstances made the same reply — ''I'll try. Sir" — at 
Lundy's Lane, and his heroism was rewarded by an order 
directing the words to be stamped upon the buttons of the 
soldiers of his regiment. But equal glory for equal heroism is 
due Col. John Miller for his heroic daring at Fort Meigs. At 
the close of the war Colonel Miller was retained in the regular 
army and ordered to duty in Missouri. In 1817 he resigned 
his command and held the office of Register of Lands till 1825, 
when he was elected Governor, and served till 1832, a period 
of nearly seven years, a longer term than has ever been extended 
to any other Governor. In 1836 he was elected to Congress and 
served six years. He died March 18th, 1846. 

78. Congressmen. — In 1828 the Adams or Whig candidate 
for Congress was Edward Bates, a brother of Frederick Bates, 
and the eloquent gentleman who afterwards became a member 
of President Lincoln's Cabinet as Attorney-General of the L^nited 
States. The Democrats had two candidates, Dr. William Carr 
Lane and Spencer Pettis, both of whom were popular with the 
people, with about an equal number of supporters. The 
Democratic leaders regretted this double candidacy, and lest 
both be defeated it was proposed that one should withdraw. 
The matter was left to Mr. Benton, and he promptly decided 



68 



HISTORY OF MISSOURI. 



that Pettis should alone be the Democratic candidate. Mr. Pettis 
was elected and reflected credit upon himself and his State. In 
1830 he was a candidate again against David Barton. The 
whole nation was then much concerned about President Jackson's 
purpose to abolish the United States Bank, the Democrats in 
Missouri enthusiastically supporting Jackson, and the Whigs 
with equal earnestness opposing him. The president of the bank 

was Nicholas Biddle, who, from 
that fact, was the leader of the 
party which clamored for its re- 
charter. Mr. Pettis in his canvass 
warmly criticised Biddle, and 
thereby gave offense to Major 

-_ Thomas Biddle, an officer in the 

United States army at St. Louis, 
and a brother of the president of 
the bank. Major Biddle scurril- 
ously attacked Pettis through a 
newspaper, to which Mr. Pettis 
replied in kind. Thereupon 
Biddle went to his room at the 
hotel and severely chastised him with a cowhide. Mr. Pettis, 
upon the urgent request of Thomas Benton, continued to make 
his canvass, and was elected by an overwhelming majority, the 
people feeling that he had been attacked on account of his 
political opinions and therefore gave him a very large vote. A 
short time thereafter he challenged Major Biddle for a duel, and 
both were killed on Bloody Island. This duel did much to 




EDWARD BATES. 



BA TES AND MILLEB—1 824-32 . 69 

arouse harsh feelings between the political parties of Missouri, 
but it also in a few years did much to create a public sentiment 
against the barbarous practice of dueling and in less than ten 
years it had almost disappeared from the State. But the death 
of Pettis made necessar}^ a special election to fill his place in 
Congress. It resulted in the election of Wm. H. Ashley, 
who continued in Congress till 1837, and was succeeded by 
ex-Governor John Miller. 

79. Slavery attracted attention even at this early date. A 
unique incident occurred in regard to it about 1827. It was 
an effort to set in operation plans for its gradual destruction. 
Accordingly a secret meeting was held, attended by twenty of 
the leading politicians of both parties, in about equal numbers 
from each. The United States Senators at that time were 
Messrs. Benton and Barton. The first was a Democrat and the 
other a Whig. Both took part in this meeting and led the 
movement. An agreement was signed by all the members 
present by which they undertook to persuade each party to 
commit itself to gradual emancipation of slavery. Resolutions 
in the form of memorials were drawn up to be presented to the 
people throughout the State for signatiire. A very little matter 
made the whole undertaking impossible before the day on which 
it was to be first presented to the public. Arthur Tappan of 
New York was at that time a very noted, enthusiastic but 
fanatical Abolitionist. The report was published generally that 
Tappan had entertained some negro men at his private table, 
and that these negroes had ridden out in his private carriage 
w4th his daughters. This ''raised such a furor" that the movers 



70 HISTOR Y OF MISSO URL 

in this laudable plan ''dared not permit the memorials to see the 
light." It is difficult to appreciate in our day the effect of the 
conduct of Tappan. But it is another illustration of what small 
things sometimes change the history of nations. These twenty 
men claimed they had the power to carry out their project, but 
after the Tappan incident they began to fear the result if they 
should succeed. 

80. Governor 3Iiller's administration was a time of general 
prosperity. The great body of the people were quietly toiling 
and preparing for the rising greatness of the State. All kinds 
of agricultural industry were followed with profit. At first most 
products sold at very low prices ; wheat at fifty cents per bushel, 
potatoes at fifty cents, flour at $1.50 per hundred and pork at the- 
same price, cows at from eight to twelve dollars and working 
oxen at from thirty to forty dollars. But these low prices were 
largely due to the difficulty of reaching the world's markets.. 
Towards the close of his term steamboats became more frequent 
on the rivers, and transportation cheaper and easier. Then 
prices became better. The ''prairie fires" at this time presented 
a sight never to be seen again. The prairies and woods were 
filled with snakes and numerous wild animals. To destroy these 
and prevent vegetation from decaying, in the nights of spring 
and fall the "prairie fires" were set, and made a beautiful scene^ 
though sometimes attended with danger. 

81. At the election in 1832 there were three candidates for 
Governor. Daniel Dunklin of Washington county was the 
Democratic, Dr. John Bull of Howard was the anti-Jacksort 
candidate and Samuel C. Davis was an independent candidate- 



GOVERNOR DUNKLIN'S ADMINISTRATION 



71 



Dunklin was elected by a majority of about 1,100. The Lieu- 
tenant-Governor was Lilburn W. Boggs of Jackson county. Dr. 
Bull was the same year elected a member of Congress, under a 
new apportionment which gave Missouri two representatives 
instead of one. Governor Dunklin was inaugurated November 
22d, 1832. 



CHAPTER IV 



GOVERNOR DUNKLIN'S ADMINISTRATION— 1832-36. 

82. Daniel Dunklin, fifth Governor of Missouri, was born 
in Greenville District, South 
Carolina, in 1790; moved to 
Kentucky in 1807, and to 
Potosi, Missouri, in 1810. He 
was sheriff of Washington 
county while Missouri was yet 
a Territory, and was a member 
of the constitutional conven- 
tion of 1820. He became 
Governor, November 1832, and 
espoused the cause of public 
schools so ardently that he 
may be justly called the Father 
of the Common School System 

of Missouri. One month be- daniel dunklin. 

fore his term as Governor expired he resigned to accept the office 




72 HISTORY OF MISSOURI. 

of Surveyor-General of Missouri, Illinois and Arkansas, which 
had been tendered him by President Jackson. In this capacity 
he established the boundary line between Missouri and Arkansas, 
and laid out most of the counties of these three States. He died 
in 1844, and is buried near Pevely, Jefferson county, on the 
serene bluffs overlooking the Mississippi — one of the most 
beautiful places on the majestic river. 

83. The Asiatic cholera, perhaps the most violent epidemic 
ever known in America, reached St. Louis in 1832. It had 
devastated cities in Europe ; had crossed the seas and invaded 
New York, Philadelphia and Baltimore. The people of St. Louis 
had taken warning and made vigorous efforts to prevent its 
coming by using proper food and carefully cleaning the streets. 
But the deadly malady nestled in the wings of the wind and 
baffled all opposition. It first attacked a soldier at Jefferson 
Barracks, at the outskirts of the city. It then spread rapidly 
among the people, many of whom fled to other climates. It 
lasted six or seven weeks. During a greater part of this time 
there were from twenty to thirty deaths a day. When it finally 
disappeared there had fallen one in every twelve 6f the city's 
population. It also appeared the same year in Ste. Genevieve > 
Cape Girardeau, and other places, but the next year it prevailed 
with greater fatality in them. In 1849 it came again to St. Louis, 
with more direful results. In the midst of the consternation 
which seized upon the people a board of physicians pronounced 
against a vegetable diet and in favor of meat, and the city council 
passed a law prohibiting the use or sale of vegetables. The people, 
interpreting this to mean that meat was a remedy for the disease, 



GOVERNOR DUNKLIN'S ADMINISTRATION. 73 

engorged themselves with it, eating even to gluttony. The price 
arose to enormous sums. But in a month or two the undue 
stimulating effects of the meat diet were seen, and the ordinance 
repealed. But still the number of deaths reached 160 a day, and 
between April 30th and August 6th, 4,060 persons died from 
cholera alone. In 1850 and 1851 and again in 1867 it prevailed 
at various points along the Mississippi and Missouri, but rarely 
reached the towns a few miles from the river courses. In all 
these places the dreadful pestilence stalked the land leaving 
death and despair in its wake. The healthiest and stoutest men 
were often the first stricken. Persons of robust bodies would be 
attacked and in three or four hours waste away to skin and 
bones. So infectious was the disease supposed to be that burials 
frequently took place at night by torchlight, and often women 
and even parents assisted in burying their own dead. 

84. Lovejoy. — Another noted attempt to emancipate slaves 
was made about this time by Rev. E. P. Lovejoy, who, on his 
return from the theological school at Princeton College in 1833, 
began in St. Louis the publication of a paper devoted to the 
condemnation of slavery and its gradual extinction. His views, 
though at this day they would be regarded as mild and prudent, 
were abusive and full of denunciation. They were received in 
the spirit in which they were made, and instead of winning the 
people to his cause he drove them from him, and soon they 
shared his spirit of denunciation and became as abusive as he 
was. At the end of a year or two he found a longer residence in 
Missouri unprofitable and unsafe, and announced his purpose to 
remove to Alton, Illinois. The people thereupon sacked his 



74 HISTORY OF MISSOURI. 

office, threw his presses into the street, but without personal 
injury to him. At Alton he followed the same course pursued 
in St. Louis, but with worse results. His office was twice sacked 
and in a third attempt Lovejoy was shot. His death aroused 
great feeling in the North, and greatly incensed its people toward 
the South, especially toward slavery, although he had not met 
his death in a slave State or at the hands of slaveholders. Being 
a man of talent and noble purposes, had he pursued a milder 
and more persuasive course, he might have averted much of 
the trouble which afterward came to Missouri. But his life 
was only another illustration of how unalterably opposed 
Missourians are to abuse and outside interference^ with their 
affairs. 

85. The Platte Purchase forms a unique niche in our American 
history. It was a procedure by which a large tract of land was 
added to an already large State. It was brought about by the 
inhabitants of Clay and adjoining counties, led by men then or 
afterwards prominent in the State, and all gentlemen of ability 
and honor. Among them were General Andrew S. Hughes, 
who was said to be scarcely second to the celebrated John 
Randolph in wit and sarcasm and was a lawyer of excellent 
parts; Wm. T. Wood, afterwards a resident of Lexington and 
a well known judge; A. W. Doniphan, the brave commander of 
''Doniphan's Expedition" of the Mexican war; and David R. 
Atchison, afterwards United States Senator. With the assistance 
of these gentlemen, Senators Benton and Linn pushed through 
Congress a bill by which all the country now embraced in the 
counties of Atchison, Andrew, Buchanan, Holt, Nodaway and 



GOVERNOR DUNKLIN'S ADMINISTRATION. 75 

Platte became a part of Missouri. On September 17th, 1836, 
Captain William Clark, who had been superintendent of Indian 
affairs throughout Missouri since the time he was the Territorial 
Governor, formed a treaty with the Sac, Fox, and Iowa Indians, 
by which they ceded this territory to the United States. In 
return the Indians were given $7,500 and 400 sections of land in 
northwestern Kansas, and the entire country, therefore, has 
been known as the Platte Purchase. It all lies between the 
Missouri river and a meridian line drawn through the mouth 
of the Kansas river, at Kansas City, and comprises one of the 
richest bodies of land to be found anywhere. In December, 1836, 
Congress passed a law opening the country to settlement, and 
the next year found it teeming with people from every State and 
many came from Canada, on account of the Canadian rebellion. 
In a few years Platte county was next to St. Louis in population, 
and sent three members to the Legislature, and Buchanan sent 
two. This ascendancy continued till the large emigration to 
Kansas in 1856. 

86. The election for Governor in 1836 took place in August, 
and was preceded by a warm campaign. Lilburn W. Boggs was 
the Democratic candidate, and William H. Ashley of St. Louis, 
the Whig candidate. Boggs was elected, and Franklin Cannon 
of Cape Girardeau was chosen Lieutenant-Governor. The vote 
at this election was sixty per cent greater than it had been four 
years before. In November, Ashley was elected a Representative 
in Congress. 



76 



HISTORY OF' MISSOURI. 



CHAPTER V. 



GOVERXOR BOGGS AND MORMON TROUBLES. 




'^ 






87. Lilburn W. Boggs, the sixth Governor of Missouri, was 
born at Lexington, Kentucky, in 1796. He served as a soldier 
in the war of 1812, and in 1816 came to Missouri, first settling 

at St. Louis, then at St. Charles, 
Franklin, and Fort Osage in 
Jackson county, being engaged 
most of the time in the fur-trade 
with the Indians. In 1826 he 
was elected to the Legislature, 
and served in that body during 
several sessions. In 1832 he 
became Lieutenant - Governor, 
and on the resignation of Gov- 
ernor Dunklin, assumed the 
duties of his office. He was 
elected Governor in his own 
right within a month, inaug- 
urated November 23rd, 1836, and served four years. He was 
afterwards a leading member of the State Senate, and in 1846 
moved to California, where he filled honorable public offices, 
and died in 1861. 




LILBURN W. BOGGS. 



GOVERNOR BOGGS AND MORMON TROUBLES. 77 

88. The first military glory of any consequence won by 
Missourians was in 1837, during the Seminole war. The Semi- 
nole and Creek Indians had agreed to move from Florida west 
of the Mississippi, and the national Government ordered them 
to do so. They refused to go, and when the attempt was made 
to force them, they retreated to their swamps, and from there 
carried on a fierce predatory warfare for a year or two. The 
Government was in need of soldiers and the Secretary of War 
called on Missouri for one thousand mounted volunteers. This 
of itself was a compliment to the State, for such a request was 
made of no other State. They were enrolled from Boone, 
Callaway, Howard, Jackson, Ray, Chariton and Marion, and 
were soon on the march to Florida, under the gallant Colonel 
Richard Gentry of Columbia. After a toilsome journey they 
joined the regular army under General Zachary Taylor and took 
part in a bloody battle with the Indians near 0-kee-chd-bee 
Lake, where the whole force of the Seminoles had been gathered 
under Tiger Tail, Alligator and other warriors. The soldiers 
had to cross a miry swamp to reach the Indians and to stand 
knee-deep in mud and water while the battle lasted. Nevertheless 
these hardy volunteers, with Colonel Gentry in the lead, bravely 
marched on and fought on till the Indians were routed. One 
hundred and forty of them, mostly Missourians, were killed, 
among them Colonel Gentry. This battle ended the war. Gen. 
Taylor, in his report of it, did great injustice to the Missouri 
volunteers, and spoke of them so sneeringly as to lead them to 
think they had been slandered by him. The matter came up in 
the Missouri Legislature, where, after a thorough investigation. 



78 HISTOR Y OF MISSO URL 

resolutions of the highest praise of Colonel Gentry and the 
volunteers were adopted. The President, through the Governor 
of Missouri, was requested to have justice done in the matter, 
but nothing came of this request. 

MORMON TROUBLES. 

89. The founder of Mormonism was Joseph Smith, an unedu- 
cated, fanatical youth of New York, who regarded himself as the 
^'Revelator and Prophet" of a new faith, and claimed he was, by 
divine appointment, to establish a kingdom as precursory of the 
millennial reign of Christ on earth. He was born at Sharon, 
Vermont, in 1805, and removed with his father to Palmyra, 
New York, in 1815. Here he became within a few years much 
impressed by religious revivals, but soon relapsed into his habits 
of swearing and drunkenness. In 1823 he claimed an angel came 
to him and revealed the place where plates containing inscrip- 
tions of the early history of America could be found. These 
plates the angel of the Lord delivered to him the next day at the 
place mentioned in the dream. They were covered with Greek 
and Hebrew characters, resembling hieroglyphics, and by the 
aid of Oliver Cowdery, whom John the Baptist came to the earth 
to ordain, he translated them into the ''Book of Mormon," as 
a special revelation from Heaven. This book has been the 
mythical source of the Mormon faith, and ever since the faithful 
Mormon, or Latter Day Saint, often tells of his ''revelations." 
The proof is pretty good now that it was written by an erratic 
Presbyterian minister, as a part of a novel he had prepared on 



GOVERNOR BOGGS AND MORMON TROUBLES. 79 

the ten lost tribes of Israel, and which he had submitted to the 
publishers but never printed, but while there a copy was stolen 
by a printer. 

90. At Independence. — Smith made some converts in New 
York. In 1831 he moved to Ohio, and the next year to Jackson 
county, Missouri, found the ''Zion" of his prophecy at Inde- 
pendence and named it the ''New Jerusalem." The ''Saints" 
entered much land, owned all things in common, though most 
of the titles were in the bishops, established the "Lord's Store- 
house" at the New Jerusalem and started the "Evening Star," 
the first newspaper published in that part of the State, in which 
weekly appeared "revelations" promising wonderful things to 
the faithful. They called all persons not Mormons, Gentiles, 
and pronounced curses upon them, who tarred and feathered two 
of their bishops and threw their printing press into the streets. 
An encounter took place between the Mormons and Gentiles in 
1833, near Westport, in which the latter were defeated, and two 
.Gentiles and one Mormon were killed. Then the Mormons 
determined to drive out the Gentiles from Independence, but the 
latter were successful and compelled the Mormons to cross the 
river into Clay, Carroll and chiefly Caldwell county. 

91. Li Caldivell county the Mormons began another town and 
called it "Far West," and Joe Smith promised it would soon 
become one of the mighty cities of the world. Missionaries 
canvassed the East for converts. They poured into the new 
town rapidly. Settlements soon extended over four or five 
counties. In 1837 they began work on the temple at Far West. 
It was to be the most magnificent in the world. Five hundred 



80 HISTOR Y OF MISSO URL 

men began work on it and in a half day excavated a cellar 120 
by 80 feet and four feet deep. But it was never to be completed. 
Many industrious, prosperous citizens had been drawn hither. 
But their prosperity was to end also. Many thieves had also 
come. They believed it was proper for them to steal from the 
Gentiles. They, therefore, wandered through the country and 
appropriated whatever they saw and desired. The county 
officers being Mormons, no punishment was inflicted upon the 
thieves. This condition appealed to the citizens of other parts 
of the State for interference. 

92. It iirst began at DeWitt on the Missouri river in Carroll 
county. Here the Mormons had established a thriving settle- 
ment. It was a good boat landing and the best port for Far 
West trade. Colonel G. W. Hinkle was the principal man of 
the town. A committee of citizens, led by Rev. Sarchel Woods, 
notified him that at a large meeting in Carrollton it had been 
determined to drive the Mormons from DeWitt. Hinkle drew 
his sword and defiantly threatened death to all persons who 
would interfere with the Saints. ''Put up your sword. Colonel," 
said Mr. Woods. ''I am an old pioneer, have heard the Indians 
yell, the wolves howl and the owls hoot; and am not alarmed at 
such demonstrations." But Hinkle did not go, and toward the 
last days of September, 1838, four or five hundred troops, under 
General Congreve Jackson of Howard county, had bivouacked 
near the town. The Mormons were reinforced also, and the 
Gentiles were anxious for a fray. But Judge Earickson, of 
Howard county also, interfered in the interest of amicable settle- 
ment. The Mormons finally agreed to leave, to pay for all the 



GOVERNOR BOGGS AND MORMON TROUBLES. 81 

cattle stolen, and the Gentiles were to pay first cost on their 
lands. Men, women and children loaded their goods into 
wagons and started a long, sad train for Far West. 

93. Mormons expelled.— The indignation against the Mormons 
had now become general. The people clamored for their expul- 
sion from the State. Governor Boggs ordered out the militia to 
put down the insurgents and enforce the laws. General John 
B. Clark of Howard county was put in charge of the raw militia 
and General A. W. Doniphan of the regular militia. A thousand 
Mormons, commanded by Colonel Hinkle, were in arms. Clark 
and Doniphan first met in the southwest part of Caldwell, David 
Patten, or Captain ''Fear-Not," who led the "United Brothers 
of Gideon," and who was here killed. Fifteen miles east of Far 
West they met 125 Mormons under arms, and a skirmish ensued 
in which eighteen of them were killed, some of them after they 
had surrendered. Clark and Doniphan pressed on toward Far 
West. The Mormon leaders agreed upon terms of surrender 
without a battle. They were to deliver up their arms, surrender 
their prominent leaders for trial, and all other Mormons should 
leave the State. Much distress followed these terms of surrender 
and the consequent removal. Many of the Mormons were poor. 
Like most early settlers of Missouri they had put most of 
their money in land. This they were required to part with for 
almost nothing. Farms were traded for a horse, or a wagon 
or a yoke of oxen. Most of their number, at that time about 
4,000 in Caldwell count}^, went to Nauvoo, Illinois. Far West 
is now a cornfield with only a few gravestones to mark its 
former site. 



82 HISTOR Y OF MISSO URL 

94o Among the leaders surrendered were Joseph Smith, Parley 
P. Pratt, Col. Hinkle, Jacob Gibbs and others, about twenty in. 
all. They were indicted for treason, arson, murder, robbery, 
resisting legal process, etc. By change of venue their cases- 
were taken to Boone county for trial. On the way Joseph Smith 
escaped by bribing the guard. Pratt escaped from jail. Gibb& 
and. the others were tried before Judge David Todd and acquitted. 
General Doniphan was their lawyer. Joe Smith joined his 
followers in Illinois. There, about 1842, he had another 
' 'revelation" authorizing polygamy. He, his brother and others- 
were arrestecf and lodged in jail. Here a mob put them to death 
in June, 1844, but not till the Prophet had fought with desperation 
for his life, killing one man and wounding two others. After 
his death the ''Council of Twelve Apostles" elected Brigham 
Young to be his successor. The Mormons were soon driven 
from Illinois to Utah, where they are still numerous and 
powerful. 

95. The part taken by Governor Boggs to drive out the 
Mormons determined their leaders upon his assassination. He 
lived at Independence, and to that place in 1841 came Peter 
Rockwell, a Mormon, who hired as a common laborer under a 
different name. After he had become acquainted he easily found 
an opportunity for his desperate intention. Late one evening as 
Boggs was leaning with his back to an open window, Rockwell 
shot him in the head. The wound was a terrible one; three of 
the balls lodged in his head and neck ; another passed through 
and came out at the mouth. Nevertheless he recovered. Rock- 
well was tried and acquitted. 



THE ADMINISTEA TION OF REYNOLDS AND MARMABUKE. 83 



CHAPTER VI. 

THE ADMINISTRATION OF REYNOLDS AND MARMADUKE. 

96. The Presidential election of 184-0 was attended with deep 
interest in Missouri, as in other States. The Whig candidate 
was William Henry Harrison, who had set in operation the 
powers of the United States government in this territory. He 
was called the ''Log Cabin Candidate" and the contest was called 
the "Log Cabin, Coon Skin, and Hard Cider Campaign." Great 
assemblages were held throughout the State, addressed by the 
most powerful orators of the day, among whom were many men 
of great ability. At these ''log cabins, real coons and hard 
cider were liberally displayed," and bands of music, banners 
and great processions. Harrison was opposed by the Democratic 
candidate, Martin Van Buren. 

97. There ivas some dissatisfaction in Missouri with the 
Democratic party, which had been in power in the federal 
government for many years, because of the wide-spread financial 
troubles of the few years before. These had grown out of the 
wild speculations in lands and general recklessness in trade 
which had seized upon the nation some years before, and these 
financial panics were the natural results of the stringency and 
reaction following these reckless speculations. But the Whig 



84 HISTOR Y OF MISSO URL 

party saw a good opportunity to turn them to fine political 
advantage and was not slow to do so. A few years before the 
charter of tlie old United States Bank, which had been in 
existence, with the exception of a few years, for forty years,- 
expired. The Whigs strongly favored its re-charter, but were 
defeated by the Democrats under the lead of President Jackson, 
who had the national funds deposited in the various State banks. 
In each State there was one central bank, with branches at other 
commercial centers. In Missouri the principal bank was in 
St. Louis, with branches at Fayette, and later on at other points. 
This action on the part of Jackson preceded only about a year 
the storm which swept over the financial world in 1837, although 
the death blow to the bank had been given in 1832. The fate of 
the bank had little or nothing to do with the distress, yet they 
came close together and the Whig party made much out of the 
coincidence. But the people of Missouri had, from their organi- 
zation as a State, profited by the lessons learned in the financial 
troubles of 1818, and had avoided in a great measure much of 
this speculation. They had always believed in ''hard money,". 
or gold and silver, and hence never were afflicted with the 
''wild-cat" paper currency which proved so injurious to tlie 
prosperity of some States, except as they felt it in their foreign 
trade. The Democratic party being then the special advocates 
of "hard money," the majority of them up to this time had voted 
with that party. 

98. TJtc WIn'g.9 undertook to win tliem from their old faith, 
and the campaign of 1840 was the most energetic of any ever 
had in the State prior to the civil war if not up to tliis time. 



THE ADMINISTRATION OF REYNOLDS AND MARMADVKE. 85 



They supplemented their national ticket in Missouri by adding 

to it one of the most powerful stump-speakers ever in the State, 

General John B. Clark of Howard county, as candidate for 

Governor. Their principal doctrines were opposition to Jackson's 

policy, and the liberal use of the State's and Government's money 

in public improvements within 

the State. But the Democrats 

were also active. They regarded 

President Jackson as the people's 

friend and the doctrines he and 

his followers so much emphasized 

as the true principles of civil 

government. In opposition to 

Clark they nominated Thomas 

Reynolds, also of Howard county, 

and a man of solid worth, and 

in spite of the active efforts of 

the Whigs the Democrats again 

carried the State, as they had 

always done since the formation 

of parties in the State, and as they have never failed to do 

since when all men in the State were allowed the right to vote. 

Thomas Reynolds was elected Governor, and Meredith M. 

Marmaduke of Saline, Lieutenant-Governor. 

99. The Whigs at this election for the first time assumed 
a distinct organization in Missouri. Before that, some Whigs 
had been very prominent in politics, and had been elected to 
important offices, but they were chosen often on account of their 




,^'1'^^ 



JOHN B. CLARK. 



86 HISTOR Y OF MISSO UEI. 

personal popularity and worth, rather than because of their 
politics. But for the next twelve years the party made bold and 
aggressive campaigns at every election, although it at no time 
gained control of the State. Among its members were many of 
the ablest and best men Missouri has ever had. They were also 
its wealthiest, which fact contributed no little to their defeat at 
the polls. The Whigs were often styled the ''aristocrats" of 
Missouri by their political enemies, and this did its share in 
preventing the party from gaining strong hold on the popular 
heart. 

100. Muster Day was a time of much interest to the people 
of Missouri up to about 1840. In 1825 the Legislature had 
enacted an elaborate law for organizing the militia. By it every 
man over eighteen years old and under forty-five, except a few 
specially exempt, were enrolled as State soldiers. The purpose 
of the law was to prepare the State for Indian wars or any other 
emergency that might arise. The militia were arranged in 
divisions, brigades, regiments, battalions and companies. A 
company consisted of sixty-four privates, each battalion of five 
companies, each regiment of two battalions, each brigade of four 
regiments, and a division of any number of brigades. Captains, 
commanded companies, majors commanded battalions, colonels- 
regiments, brigadier-generals brigades, and major-generals- 
divisions. The Adjutant-General of the State was the chief 
officer of the militia. Captains, majors and colonels were elected 
by the vote of privates; generals, by the vote of under officers. 
On the first Saturday of April every year, the citizens of each 
township, or, if the population was sparse, of each county, came 



THE ADMINISTRATION OF REYNOLDS AND MARMADUKE. 87 

together to be organized into companies and drilled for soldiers. 
This was called ' 'Muster Day. " Then in May, the companies came 
together and were organized into battalions, drilled and paraded 
for several days. In October, drills were had by regiments and 
brigades. All of these occasions were looked forward to by 
the people with a great deal of interest and expectation. The 
wealthy made display of gorgeous uniforms and splendid steeds, 
and chivalric heroes were received with demonstrations of 
popular favor. On Muster Day, nearly all the people from the 
surrounding country witnessed the organization and drill of 
the soldiers, and as a result it became a time when debts were 
paid, loans made and much trading done. No other day in all 
the year was so generally observed, and none did so much to get 
the people acquainted with each other. It also did much toward 
cultivating a pride in the State and her institutions. Offices in 
the militia, though almost entirely without emolument, were as 
eagerly sought after as any in the State. However, there were 
some persons exempt from this service. They were any civil 
officer, preachers, teachers, millers and students in school. 
Ministers were at no time required to perform any kind of 
military service, nor were the-y permitted to hold any civil office 
till the new constitution was adopted in 1865. But under the 
military law ministers could be chaplains, and to be chosen as 
such was an honorable distinction. 

101. Imprisonment for cleht. — The one action in Governor 
Reynolds' life for which he will be most remembered, and in 
which he most prided, was the repeal of all laws which permitted 
imprisonment for debt. This was done b}^ the Legislature at its 



88 



HISTORY OF MISSOURI. 



session in 1842-43. Up to this time when one proved in court 
that another owed him a debt, however small or large, he could 
have him imprisoned till it was paid. The laws in those times 
were unduly hard on the debtor. They allowed him but few 
things that a sheriff could not lay hold of and sell. If he had 
been unfortunate and lost his property, he could retain not 
over a hundred dollars worth for his family, and besides the 

avaricious creditor could come 
with an armed officer and take 
him away to jail, and thereb}^ 
deprive his wife and children of 
the benefit of his toil. The worst 
part about such a law was that 
it was the cruel and avaricious 
man, the one without mercy or 
a danger of want, who oftenest 
made use of it. It also worked 
the greatest hardship on those 
who needed the State's protection 
most. This barbarous law, which 
was once in force in most of the 
early States, Governor Reynolds 
determined to have repealed. He wrote the act himself and by 
earnest and persistent endeavor pushed it through the Legislature. 
It was one of the shortest laws ever enacted, and simply read, 
''Imprisonment for debt is hereby forever abolished." 

102. In ISIfS died Dr. Letuis F. Linn, one of Missouri's 
Senators in Congress. He was perhaps the most popular man 




THOMAS REYNOLDS. 



THE ADMINISTRATION OF REYNOLDS AND MARMADUKE. 89 



the State ever had. He was born in 1795, near Louisville, 
Kentucky. In early life he began the study of medicine and 
became by his own efforts a very skillful and successful 
physician. In 1816 he moved to Ste. Genevieve, Missouri, and 
though often tendered public 
office steadfastly declined. His 
chivalric conduct in caring for 
the sick at the time of ' the 
cholera scourge in 1833 made 
him the idol of southeast Mis- 
souri. During the pestilence 
Alexander Buckner and his wife 
of Cape Girardeau had died on 
the same day. Buckner at the^ 
time represented Missouri in the 
national Senate, and numerous 
petitions were sent Governor Dunklin to appoint Dr. Linn 
to the vacancy, who himself was just recovering from an 
attack of the cholera contracted while attending to others stricken 
with the dreadful disease. The Governor did so and when the 
Legislature met he was unanimously elected. He was re-elected 
in 1836 and again in 1843, this time receiving 119 out of the 
129 votes, and during the whole period carefully looked after 
the interests of his State in that august body. Meetings were 
held in almost every county of the State to pay proper tribute to 
his name when he died, and the Legislature unanimously voted 
to erect a suitable monument to his memory. The Legislatures 
of Wisconsin and Iowa voted unanimously to wear mourning 




LEWIS F. LINN. 



90 



HISTORY OF MISSOURI. 



for him for thirty days, so highly did they appreciate his services 
while in the Senate in behalf of their young States. David R. 
Atchison of Platte county succeeded him in the Senate and served 
till 1855. 

103. Governor Reynolds, elected in 1840, was a man of 
excellent ability. He was born in Kentucky, resided in Illinois 
for a few years, where he was Supreme Judge of the State. In 
1828 he moved to Missouri, was successively a member of the 
General Assembly, Speaker of the House, Circuit Judge, and 
Governor. While yet holding this last office, on February 9th, 
1844, for the first time in his life, he asked a divine blessing 
at his breakfast table, then went to a room in the Executive 

Mansion, locked the door and 
shot himself. For several months 
he had been in poor health. It 
was thought this and domestic 
troubles had impaired his sanity. 
He left a note in which he said 
''the abuse and slanders of his 
enemies" had rendered his life 



a burden to himself and prayed 
God to "forgive them and teach 
them more charity." Lieutenaijt- 
Governor Marmaduke became the 
Governor and served till the 20th 
of the next November, being a 

man of eminently respectable talents, and making a wise and 

safe ruler. 




M. M. MARMADUKE. 



THE ADMINISTRATION OF REYNOLDS AND MARMADUKE. 91 

104. The election of 184-4- has some interests beyond ordinary 
elections. Congress, at a previous session, had given instruction 
for the division of the State into Congressional districts. By the 
census of 1840, Missouri had, because of the great increase of 
her population, become entitled to five Representatives in 
Congress instead of two as was the case from 1830 to 1840. Up 
to this time the State had never been divided into Congressional 
districts, nor was it now. The Legislature would not acknowledge 
the authority of Congress in the matter and refused to district 
the State. This action created some feeling in political affairs, 
and the Whigs, professing to believe the election of Congressmen 
on a general ticket in this wise would be illegal, refused to 
nominate candidates, and let the election go by default. The 
Democrats, left free from the opposition of a common rival, 
disagreed among themselves. One faction, which wished for 
stable silver and gold (hard) money and also desired the return 
of Thomas H. Benton to the Senate, became known as ''Hards," 
and nominated John C. Edwards of Cole county for Governor, 
and James Young of Lafayette for Lieutenant-Governor, and 
placed on the same ticket five candidates for Congress. The 
''Softs" desired a liberal issue of paper money and were opposed 
to the return of Mr. Benton to the Senate, his long dominant 
infiuence in the State having become irksome to them. They 
did not nominate a candidate for Governor, but supported 
Charles H. Allen, an Independent candidate, who was also 
supported by the Whigs. Edwards was elected by a majority 
of 5,600 votes, and was inaugurated November 20th, 1844. At 
this election John S. Phelps and Sterling Price were elected to 



92 



HISTORY OF MISSOURI. 



Congress — men destined to become very prominent in State 
affairs for the next thirty years. 



CHAPTER VII, 



THE ADMINISTRATIONS OF GOVERNORS EDWARDS AND KING. 



105. John Cummings Edwards, the ninth Governor of 
Missouri, was born in Kentucky in 1806, but was reared 
in Rutherford county, Tennessee, and received a classical 

education. He was licensed to 
practice law in Tennessee, and 
came to. Missouri in 1828. In 
1830, he was appointed Secretary 

i 

of State by Governor Miller, and 
held the office till 1837, and then 
was a member of the Legislature 
for one term, in the meantime 
giving special attention to his 
farm of which he was very 
fond. In 1840, he was elected 
to Congress and in 1844 he 
became Governor and served till 

the 27th of December, 1848. The following May he left Missouri 

for California, where he died in 1888. 




JOHN C. EDWARDS. 



THE ADMINISTRATIONS OF EDWARDS AND KING. 93 

106. Attempts at a new constitution. In 1845 sixty-six 
delegates were chosen to a convention, provided for by the 
Legislature, to frame a new constitution for the State. They 
were the strongest and best the State afforded, and were chosen, 
in many cases, without any regard for their politics. The 
instrument was drawn up, and voted on at the next election, in 
1846. A majority of the votes outside of St. Louis were for it, 
but in that city so great was the opposition, that it was defeated 
by 9,000 votes on the entire count. This was largely due to one 
newspaper, ''The New Era," edited by William Campbell, one 
of the brightest men in the State, who opposed the new constitu- 
tion on the ground that it provided that judges of the Supreme 
and Circuit courts should be elected by the people instead of 
appointed by the Governor, as the law then required. He 
brought to bear the whole power of his powerful writing against 
this change, and succeeded in defeating the new constitution. 
But at the very next session of the Legislature the old con- 
stitution was amended, the change providing for an elective 
judiciary, and this amendment being ratified at the following 
session it became the law, and thereafter judges were elected by 
the people. 

107. The Annexation of Texas and the acquirement of New 
Mexico are a part of the history of Missouri. The United States 
had once a shadowy title to Texas. Under Preside^ Monroe it 
was traded to Spain for the Floridas. The policy of the nation, 
it mattered not which party was in power, was from that time 
on to regain it. But from the time Spain acquired it there 
had been a constant stream of emigrants thither from Missouri. 



94 HISTOR Y OF MISSO URL 

Hence the people of this State were closely connected with those 
of Texas by ties of blood. ''It is probably within bounds to 
assert that between 1822 and 1836 there were few prominent 
Missouri families that were not at some time represented in the 
life of Texas." In 1835 Texas won her independence from 
Mexico in a predatory war known as the "Texas Rebellion," and 
was largely assisted by Missourians who could not ignore her 
cry for help, although all the assistance given was by private 
-citizens, who gave their aid on their own responsibility and not 
from any authority or consent of the State or nation. But soon 
after winning her independence Texas desired to become a State. 
This was at first stoutl}^ opposed, but in 1844 her admission 
was made the principal issue in the Presidential campaign. 
Missouri's interest in the matter was yet strong. She was in 
favor of the admission of Texas, and so cast her vote against 
Henry Clay, the most popular candidate the oj^position could 
bring forward, and always a favorite in Missouri. The nation 
as well declared for her admission, and the matter having been 
settled by the popular voice, Texas was admitted into the Union 
in 1845. Mexico had prior thereto warned the United States 
that such admission would cause her to declare war. Accord- 
ingly on April 24th, 1846, the Mexican commander on the 
Texas border notified General Zachary Taylor that he considered 
hostilities to have begun, and a few days afterwards Congress 
declared "war existed by the act of Mexico." 

108. Many Missourians took part in the Mexican war. A few 
hundred of them joined the regular army under Taylor and Scott 
and shared in the honor of capturing the city of Mexico. But so 



THE ADMINISTRATIONS OF EDWARDS AND KING. . 



95 



far as the United States was concerned this was by no means as- 
important as the subjugation and acquirement of New Mexico, 
which was done ahnost entirely by Missouri vohmteers. In the 
middle of May, 1846, Governor Edwards called for volunteers to 
join the ''Army of the West." Thirteen hundred and fifty-eight 
men assembled at Fort Leaven- 
worth from the counties of 
Jackson, Lafayette, Saline, 
Clay, Franklin, Cole, Howard, 
and Callaway. A. W. Doni- 
phan of Clay was elected 
colonel, and because of his 
prudent wisdom and energy 
in the campaign, it has usually 
been called ''Doniphan's Ex- /^ 
pedition." They were joined 
there by 300 regulars from the 
United States Army, with 16 
pieces of artillery, and the 
whole force was placed under the command of General Kearney,, 
also a citizen of Missouri. In June they set out over the plains 
for Santa Fe, 900 miles distant and reached it in less than fifty 
days, having traveled through an uninhabited country and 
suffered much for water, yet with little loss in men or animals. 
109. Upo7i their approach, the Mexican governor abandoned 
the place as a result of a bribe, and so the Americans took 
possession "without firing a gun or shedding a drop of blood." 
Santa Fe was then the center of the overland trade with Missouri 




ALEXANDER W. DONIPHAN. 



96 • IIISTOR Y OF MISSO URL 

and the distributing point of all trade of northern Mexico. It was 
the political capital of the country north of the Rio Grande, 
which hitherto had resisted all attempts at conquest by Texas. 
The next day after its capture, General Kearney issued a 
proclamation by which he absolved the people from all allegiance 
to Mexican authority, and by ''one stroke of the pen transformed 
them into citizens of the United States." This proclamation was 
not acknowledged by the President, but he virtually connived at 
it, and it was upheld by the sword for two years and then ratified 
by the treaty of 1848, which ended the Mexican war. General 
Kearne}^ with characteristic energy and aggressiveness, caused 
a constitution and code of laws to be prepared by Doniphan and 
Willard P. Hall, both lawyers, which changed New Mexico in 
name and fact from a province of Mexico into a Territory of the 
United States. He appointed Charles Bent Governor and F. P. 
Blair, Jr., Attorney-General. Both were Missourians. He then 
set out for the Pacific coast to bring California under like 
subjugation, leaving Colonel Doniphan in command. The day 
after his departure Colonel Sterling Price arrived at Santa Fe. 
He had resigned his seat in Congress and taken the lead of a 
large force of men who had collected in companies of one each 
from the counties of Boone, Benton, Carroll, Chariton, Linn, 
Livingston, Monroe, Randolph, Ste. Genevieve and St. Louis, 
and marched to join the ''Army of the West." 

110. Leaving Price in charge of (lie troops at Santa Fe, and 
having in a short time put down a considerable uprising of the 
Navajo (pro. Nav-a-ho) Indians, who had long been in hostilities 
with the people of New Mexico, Doniphan started to Chihauhau 



THE ADMINISTRATIONS OF EDWARDS AND KING. 97 

(Slie-waw-waw) 900 miles distant, to join General Wool. A 
sandy desert, without wood or water, had to be crossed. In 
three days this was done and the army had running water. 
They arrived on Christmas day at a little place called Bracito 
( Bra-se-to ) . Here they halted and began to collect feed for their 
horses and water and fuel. Suddenly a superior force of 
Mexicans darted upon them in full fire. The Missourians 
quickly formed on foot, held their fire till the Mexicans came 
within easy range of their guns and after a half hour's fighting 
drove them from the field, "leaving sixty-three dead and one 
hundred and fifty wounded." 

111. Capture of Chihauhmi. — Two days later Doniphan 
reached El Paso and learned Wool had not taken Chihauhau nor 
moved toward it. After waiting till the 8th of February for the 
arrival of some artillery from Santa Fe under Captain Weightman, 
he set out again. In three weeks he was within fifteen miles of 
Chihauhau, 225 miles from El Paso, with 924 effective men and 
a caravan of 300 traders' wagons which had followed him all the 
way for protection and trade with the Mexicans. Here Doniphan 
learned ''the enemy was strongh^ posted on high ground, fortified 
by entrenchments and well supplied with artillery," consisting 
of ''about 4,000 men, of whom some 1,500 were rancheros 
badly armed with lassos, lances and corn-knives." Despite 
their superior numbers he determined to attack them. He 
advanced with seven dismounted companies and three mounted. 
A charge of these with the aid of two twelve-pound cannon 
decided the battle. The Mexicans fled. Three hundred of them 
were killed, three hundred wounded and forty prisoners. The 



98 HISTOR Y OF MISSO URL 

Missourians' loss was one killed and eleven wounded. The 
Missourians now started for the mouth of the Rio Grande, which 
they reached the 9th of June, 1847, and the next da}^ embarked 
for New Orleans and for home. 

112. After leaving Chihaukau only one incident need be 
mentioned. This is a pleasing and novel episode. The Mexican 
people of Parras had shown great kindness to the sick of Wool's 
army. After he left they had been plundered and threatened 
by a marauding band of Indians. Although Mexicans they 
appealed to Doniphan for help, who detached Captain Reid 
and thirty-five men for the purpose. They severely punished 
the Indians and recaptured and returned to their parents 
eighteen Mexican boys and girls. This shows how willing these 
Missouri boys were to do an act of humanity to even an enemy 
in distress. 

113. This was the end of " Doniphan^ s Expedition.' ' He had 
traveled 3,000 miles from Fort Leavenworth to the mouth of the 
Rio Grande in nine months, with a loss all told of less than 
fifty men, and had prepared the way for the acquirement by the 
United States of New Mexico, a tract twice as large as Missouri. 

114. We must return to Santa Fe to note what had been going 
on there. There was a * 'deadly hostility'' toward the Americans; 
an intrigue was formed, and at an uprising of Mexicans on the 
19th of January, 1847, Governor Bent had been killed while 
on a visit to his family at Taos, seventy miles from Santa Fe. 
Colonel Price set out at once with 350 men and met the Mexicans 
at Canada, New Mexico. After a short skirmish the Mexicans 
were driven from their position. They left behind thirty-six 



THE ADMINISTRATIONS OF EDWARDS AND KING. 99 

dead on the field. Price's loss was two killed and seven 
wounded. Price followed on. He was joined by Captain 
Burgwin with one company, which swelled his number to four 
hundred and eighty. Tlie enemy had taken refuge in a pueblo 
near San Fernando de Taos. This place was enclosed with 
strong walls and pickets. In it were two pyramid-shaped 
buildings, seven or eight stories high, and built of sun-dried 
brick. Their walls were thick and pierced for rifles. Here the 
Mexicans successfully defended themselves for two days. Price's 
cannon could not make a breach in the stubborn walls of these 
buildings. He therefore ordered that they be stormed on all 
sides at once. The soldiers cut their way through the walls with 
axes, and then brought up their six-pound cannon, by which 
the ''holes were widened into a practicable breach." The 
buildings were carried without further resistance and the siege 
was ended, with 150 Mexicans killed out of six or seven hundred, 
and seven of the Missourians killed and forty-five wounded, 
many of whom died. Fifteen of the prisoners were hanged for 
treason. 

115. Thus ended the revolt. But it began again in a few 
months. It had all the time been carried on by small bands of 
marauders, red and white, who robbed passing trading wagons. 
Soon came the report that a large hostile force was approaching 
from the South. Price called for additional troops. He was 
soon at the head of 3,000, nearly all of whom were from 
Missouri. With this number he found no difficulty in 
maintaining order and the position he had won. The people 
of New Mexico in a short time submitted to the situation, and 



100 



HISTORY OF MISSOURI. 



the treaty of 1848 ending the Mexican war gave sanction to 
what had been done by Kearney, Doniphan and Price, and 
acknowledged that New Mexico had for some time been territory 
of the United States. 

116. In 18J/.8 Austin A. King, of Ray county, was put 
forward by the Democrats for Goyernor, and James S. Rollins, 
of Boone, by the Whigs. The Democrats had steadily gained 
in numbers during the past four years, and although Rollins 

was one of the most popular and 
gifted men in the State, King 
was elected by 15,000 majority 
out of a total yote of 83,000. 
Thomas L. Price, a Benton Dem- 
ocrat from Cole county, was 
elected Lieutenant - Goyernor. 
With few exceptions the Goy- 
ernors of Missouri haye been men 
of ability, learning and integrity, 
and Austin A. King may be 
regarded as the equal of almost 
any of them. He was moreoyer 
an eminently practical man, of 
fine habits and free from those 
vices which sometimes beset public men. He was born in 
Tennessee in 1801, a son of an old Reyolutionary family, and 
received a good education for his day. He became a learned 
lawyer, and came to Missouri, first settling in Boone county, 
and served one term in the Legislature from there. In 1837 he 




!/ 



AUSTIN A. KING. 



THE ADMINISTRATIONS OF EDWARDS AND KING. 101 

moved to Ray county and was appointed Circuit Judge, and 
served in that capacity till elected Governor. When the war 
came on he earnestly, and even bitterly, denounced the secession 
movement, and was elected by the Union party to Congress in 
1862 and served two years. He died in 1870. 

117. A destructive fire occurred in May, 1849, among the 
boats of St. Louis. The steamer *' White Cloud" took fire. 
Twenty-three other boats were soon in fiames. The line of 
conflagration was a mile long. The fire spread to the city and 
whole blocks were burnt. All the buildings on Front street, 
from Locust to Market, were swept away. Three million dollars 
was the value of the property destroyed. 

118. The Iowa Line. — In 1849 the Supreme Court of the 
United States settled the long and sore contest between Iowa 
and Missouri as to which should own a strip of land twenty 
miles wide lying between the undisputed territory of each. 
Missouri claimed the northern border should be a parallel of 
latitude which passed through the rapids of the river Des 
Moines, and Iowa claimed it should be a line which passed 
through the rapids of the Mississippi twenty miles further south. 
From 1837 the inhabitants of this strip had voted at Missouri 
elections. But in 1845 a Missouri sheriff, acting under the 
order of a Missouri court, had arrested some criminals on this 
strip, and was himself arrested and convicted by an Iowa 
Territorial court on the ground that he was exercising authority 
on Iowa territory. The contention at once took a serious face, 
and was made the subject of many fiery speeches in the 
campaigns for several years. Unfriendly and revengeful feelings 



102 HISTORY OF MISSOURI. 

began to grow between the people of Missouri and Iowa. The 
matter was quietly and peaceably settled, however, by the United 
States Supreme Court, and thus the importance of having such 
a body to settle disputes between the States was shown 

119. The Indian border line was adopted as the proper dividing 
line between the two States. It ran almost in the middle of the 
twenty-mile strip. It had been established in 1816, by John 
Sullivan, as the northern boundary of Missouri. Sullivan 
was a United States surveyor, appointed for the purpose of 
establishing this line. The mistake made in running it was one 
cause of the trouble, and that mistake has never been corrected 
and still remains. He began on a meridian one hundred miles, 
north of Kansas City, and, instead of running due east, varied 
to the north, and at the river Des Moines had varied four miles- 
in that direction. But the United States had by no less than 
sixteen treaties with the Indians recognized the line he ran as 
the border of Missouri. Missouri had so regarded it up to 1837,. 
and the court now held that it should forever be the dividing 
line between the two States. It is perpetually marked by iron 
and stone posts four feet six inches long, squaring twelve inches- 
at the bottom and eight at the top, and set deep in the ground 
every ten miles along the entire border. On the north side of 
three of these iron posts is the word ''Iowa" and on the south 
side the word ''Missouri." By this decision Missouri lost a 
strip of land ten miles wide on the east and fourteen on the 
west; and Iowa lost the rest of the twenty-mile strip. 



BENTON AND THE J A CKSON RESOL UTIONS. 103 



CHAPTER VIII. 
BENTON AND THE JACKSON RESOLUTIONS. 

120. The slavery question again stirred the State. It grew out 
of the acquisition, by the nation, of California and New Mexico. 
All of the last and part of the first lay south of parallel thirty-six 
degrees and thirty minutes, agreed upon by Congress as the line 
north of which slavery was not to exist. But African slavery 
had never existed in New Mexico. When it therefore became 
territory of the United States, the North contended that slavery 
must not be introduced there. It was the desire of the South 
that it should. A large portion of the people of Missouri held 
that the proper way to settle the matter was for Congress not 
to interfere at all, but to let the inhabitants of the territory 
determine for themselves whether they wished slavery or not 
within their bounds. By way of giving expression to this view 
a series of propositions known as the ^'Jackson Resolutions" 
were passed -by the Legislature in January, 1849. They were 
so called because Claiborne F. Jackson of Howard county, 
afterwards Governor of the State, was chairman of the committee 
Avhich reported them to the Senate, though they were written, 
it is said, by Judge W. B. Napton, a member of the Supreme 
Court from the county of Saline. 

121. The Jackson Resolutions were passed by a vote of about 
twenty-four to seven in the Senate and sixtv to twenty-two in the 



104 HISTOB Y OF IflSSO URL 

House, the Democrats generally voting for them and the Whigs 
against. The resolutions were six in number. Only the salient 
points of each are here given. The first contended that the 
Constitution gave Congress no power to legislate on the subject 
of slavery; the second, that the territories ought to be governed 
for the benefit of the people of all the States and that under 
the Constitution no laws could exclude the citizens of any part 
of the Union from moving to such territories with their 
property; the third, that the General Assembly regarded the 
conduct of the Northern States as releasing the slave-holding 
States from all further adherence to the Missouri Compromise, 
but, for the sake of harmony and the preservation of the 
Federal Union, they would agree to the application of the 
principles of that compromise to these territories; the fourth, 
that the right to prohibit slavery in any Territory belongs 
exclusively to the people thereof; the fifth, that if Congress 
passed any act in conflict with these principles, Missouri will 
cooperate with ^'the slave - holding States for our mutual 
protection against the encroachments of northern fanaticism." 
The sixth resolution instructed Messrs. Benton and Atchison, 
Missouri's United States Senators, to act in conformity with these 
resolutions. Atchison did so, but Benton refused, and appealed 
to the people for indorsement. He claimed slavery was an 
''incurable evil" and therefore it ought not be extended. 

122. The claim luas admitted by many of the men who voted 
for the resolutions, but they yet held that the people of the 
territory ought to determine for themselves whether slavery 
should exist in their midst ; that it was not a question whether 



BENTON AND THE JACKSON RESOLUTIONS. 105 

slavery was right or wrong, but of non-interference by 
Congress. They said the people of the slave-holding States had 
a right, under the Constitution which guaranteed freedom of 
commerce between the States, to go into any of the Territories 
they had helped to acquire, taking their slave property with 
them if they so desired, upon the same footing as that upon 
which people of the North were permitted to move into the same 
Territory with their horses or other personal property. It was 
by no means certain that all the Territories would desire to become 
slave States. Some would not. Mr. Benton had always been 
quietly opposed to slavery, but he could have accepted this view 
of non-interference without surrendering his convictions in regard 
to it. It was afterwards, in 1857, accepted by the Supreme 
Court of the United States, the final authority on all such 
questions. 

123. But Mr. Benton ivas not a man of Compromises. He 
welcomed friction, and gloried in the prospect of overcoming 
his enemies. He was possessed with superb courage, physical 
and moral, and an imperious will. He ignored and brushed 
aside the views of the supporters of the Jackson Resolutions. 
He had no conciliation to make. He had always been ardently 
devoted to the Union. In this ardor and his own imperious 
domination, he mistook the views and purposes of those of his 
own party who differed from him. He had been a devoted 
follower of Andrew Jackson, and gave great support to that 
man of iron in his endeavors to humiliate, break down, and 
punish Mr. Calhoun, against whom Jackson had a deep personal 
grievance. Benton could see nothing in the Jackson Resolutions 



106 



HISTORY OF MISSOURI. 



but a reiteration of Calhoun's nullification doctrines. He thought 
they meant disunion and secession. Perhaps he was honest in 
this view. His ardor for the Union and his devotion to Andrew 




/ J 

THOMAS II. BENTON. 



Jackson and his dislike for Calhoun perhaps led him to enlarge 
their import and grounded him in his belief. Yet the friends 
of the Resolutions did not so regard them. Many of those who 
strongly supported them, were a few years later loyal supporters 



BENTON AND THE JACKSON RESOLUTIONS. 107 

of the Union cause. Benton had given the Resolutions a 
meaning which few or none of those voting for them believed 
was the proper inference. He appealed to the people to stand 
to his interpretation. He made a tremendous struggle to be 
sustained, and spoke with incisive invective against his 
opponents in every part of the State. Strong men of the 
Democratic party opposed him. The Whigs took no j^art in the 
contest. 

124. When tJie General Assembly met Benton ivas defeated, the 
opposing Democrats voting with the Whigs and thus elected 
Henry S. Geyer of St. Louis to the United States Senate. Mr. 
Benton had been the political leader and autocrat of the State 
for thirty years. But from this time on his power was broken. 
He represented St. Louis one term in Congress from 1852-54, 
but was then defeated by Luther M. Kennett, a Know-nothing. 
In 1856 he was an unsuccessful candidate for Governor on his 
own personal strength as an independent candidate, but was 
defeated. Had he not tried to make the Jackson Resolutions 
mean something which the great body of the people did not 
intend them to mean, he might have held his seat in the Senate 
till his death. After his defeat the Democratic party committed 
itself to non-interference by Congress in questions of slavery 
in new territories, and there was political peace for a few years 
till the breaking out of fresh trouble in Kansas. 

125. Henry S. Geyer, who succeeded Mr. Benton in the 
Senate, was born in Maryland, came to Missouri about 1815, 
was a member of the Convention in 1820 which framed the 
Constitution, w^as a member of the Legislature for several terms, 



108 



HISTORY OF MISSOURI. 



and Speaker of the House for the first five years after the 
admission of Missouri into the Union. No man of the earh^ 
days did more to systematize Missouri's Laws. He was regarded 
as the ablest hiwyer of the State prior to the Civil War, and in 

his practice before the United 
States Supreme Court came in 
contact with Daniel Webster, 
Reverdy Johnson, and other men 
of great fame and was a match 
for any of them. He made an 
argument and won the decision in 
the famous Dred Scott case, which 
attracted attention throughout half 
the enlightened world. But as a 
statesman he was a great disap- 
pointment. He made no brilliant 
record in the Senate, and this 
became all the more apparent from 
the fact that he was the only 
avowed Whig ever elected to that body from Missouri. He 
died in 1859 at the age of sixty-one. 

126. Internal improvements. In the meantime the State had, 
for the first time since its organization, committed itself to a 
liberal policy of internal improvements. As early as 1836 
charters had been granted to private companies to construct 
better wagon roads. Commercial centers had sprung up far 
from the navigable rivers. Freighting to them had been done 
almost exclusively by ox- wagons. Plank or macadam roads 




HENRY S. GEYER. 



BENTON AND THE JACKSON RESOLUTIONS. 109 

were now constructed. This gradually called into use wagons 
and other vehicles drawn by horses. No State aid had been 
given to any of these improvements. But in 1849 the General 
Assembly — the same one which passed the Jackson Resolutions — 
found the State out of debt and her revenue largely increasing, 
and a popular demand for State aid to railroads. In February 
the construction of the Missouri Pacific railway from St. Louis 
to the western border of the State was authorized. The survey 
was soon made, and construction began in July 1850. Other 
railroads were then rapidly projected. 

127. The doors of the public treasury had been opened to 
the Missouri Pacific. Other roads claimed an equal right 
to favoritism. There was no stopping place now. In quick 
succession aid was given to the St. Louis and San Francisco 
(the ''Frisco"), the Iron Mountain, the Wabash, the Hannibal 
and St. Joseph, and other railroads. In eight years these roads 
received from the State its bonds to the amount of twenty-three 
million dollars, which they were allowed to sell for cash, but 
the interest of which the roads agreed to pay. In this most of 
them failed, and hence the State had to pay the interest. Besides 
this immense sum of about twenty million dollars, the debt was 
in a few years atigmented by the great debt caused by the civil 
war. But for most of the war debt the State was^ reimbursed by 
the United States government. In 1865 the entire debt was 
thirty-six millions. In 1872, the first year all the citizens were 
again allowed to vote, it amounted to over twenty-one millions, 
and in 1891 to over ten millions. 



1 10 HISTOR Y OF MISSO URL 



CHAPTER IX. 

FROM IS 52 TO 1861. 

128. At the election of 1852 Sterling Price of Chariton county 
was put forward by the Democratic party for Governor. The 
Whigs nominated James Winston of Benton county, who was 
a grandson of the great Patrick Henry, and a man of many 
marked characteristics. He was a natural orator and dis- 
tinguished for his brilliant conversations, but was awkward 
and clumsy. He was a great walker and made his canvass of 
the State on foot. He was the best natured of men, and did not 
give himself a moment's concern when the returns announced 
that Price had been elected by a majority of nearly 14,000 
votes. Wilson Brown of Cape Girardeau was elected Lieutenant- 
Governor. The new Governor was inaugurated the first Tuesday 
in January 1853, and the Legislature for many weeks was 
stirred by animated discussions of the famous Jackson Resolu- 
tions which had been passed by the previous session of the 
General Assembly. 

129. Sterling Price was born in Virginia in' 1809, educated 
at Hampden-Sidney college, and came to Missouri with his 
father in 1831, first settling at Fayette, and two years later 
at Keytesville in Chariton county, where he engaged in 
merchandising and keeping hotel for two years, and then 
settled on a large farm six miles south, and engaged in 
agricultural pursuits till 1861. In 1840 he was elected to the 



FBOM 1832 TO 1861. 



Ill 



Legislature and was chosen Speaker, and in 1842 was re-elected 
to both positions. In 1845 he was elected to Congress. When 
the Mexican war broke out he resigned and was commissioned 




GEN. STERLING PRICE. 



by President Polk to raise and command a regiment, and 
before the war closed rose to the rank of Brigadier-General. 
In 1852 he was elected Governor as an anti-Benton Democrat^ 



112 HISTOR Y OF MISSO URL 

and made the State a faithful, safe and wise chief magistrate. 
During his term he urged the Legislature to pass a law increasing 
the salary of the Governor, for the benefit of his successor. The 
Legislature provided for the increase to begin at once. Governor 
Price refused to accept the additional salary, and it was never 
afterwards claimed by him. In 1860 he supported Stephen A. 
Douglas for the Presidency, and was elected to the convention 
wdiich declared Missouri would not secede and was m^de its 
chairman. After the capture of Camp Jackson by the Union 
troops, he accepted from Governor Jackson the appointment 
of Major-General of the State troops, and in May 1862 joined 
the Confederacy and fought for it till it was vanquished. The 
brilliant qualities which he exhibited in so many ways during 
that war so endeared him to the people of the South, that with 
the exception of Lee and Jackson, no man among all their 
cherished heroes is remembered with more ardent and sincere 
affection. After the war he returned to St. Louis and engaged 
in the business of a commission merchant, and died there in 
1867. 

130. The Gasconade railroad disaster occurred on November 
1st, 1855. The Missouri Pacific Railroad, the first built within 
the State, had been completed from St. Louis to Jefferson City, 
and it was proposed to celebrate the occasion by a noted 
excursion to the State capital. The train consisted of nine 
crowded cars, and some of the most prominent men in the State 
were on board. The bridge across the Gasconade river had 
been completed with the exception of one span. In place of 
this strong temporary scaffolding had been erected, and the 



FBOM IS 52 TO 1862. 



113 



inspectors pronounced it strong enough to carry the train across 
in safety. That was a sad mistake. In the midst of a great 
storm, while the thunders pealed and the lightnings flashed, it 
gave way under the Aveight of the engine, several cars went 
down, forty-three persons were killed outright, and a much 
larger number badly wounded. 

131. At the election in 1856 the Democratic candidate for 
Governor was Trusten Polk of St. Louis. Robert C. Ewing 
was the American candidate and Thomas H. Benton was 
an independent candidate. Polk 
was elected. He received 47,000 
votes, Ewing 40,500, and Benton 
27,600. The election of United 
States Senator enlisted more 
than ordinary interest. Two years 
before the Legislature had bal- 
loted for days, trying to elect a 
successor to David R. Atchison. 
It had failed to do so and for two 
years Missouri had only one 
Senator, Henry S. Geyer. But in 
1857 James S. Green was elected 
to serve till 1861, and Trusten 
Polk to serve till 1863. Polk 
within a few months resigned as Governor, and Hancock 
Jackson, the Lieutenant - Governor, served till the special 
election in August, when Robert M. Stewart was chosen over 
James S. Rollins. 




DAVID R. ATCHISON. 



114 



HISTORY OF MISSOURI. 



132. Trustcn Polh was born in Delaware in 1811, graduated 
at Yale College in 1831, and came to Missouri in 1835, settling 
in St. Louis, where he took the highest rank as a lawyer 
and citizen. No man in the State was more popular with 
the young members of the bar, none more respected by the 

people. He was a man of the 
cleanest habits, of great candor 
and sincerity. In 1843 he was 
city Counselor of St. Louis and 
in 1856 was elected Governor, 
and within a few months to the 
United States Senate. He made 
a useful Senator, being very 
attentive to the interests of his 
constituents. Early in the war 

he was expelled from the Senate 

* 

by the Republican members on 
a charge of disloyalty. He died 
in St. Louis in 1876. His 
public services after * the war 

were given to his church and to upbuilding the educational 

interests of the State. 

133. James S. Green was born in Virginia, in 1817, and 
was educated at the common-field schools of that State. He 
came to Missouri in 1837, settled in Lewis county, and a few 
years later was admitted to the bar. He was a member of the 
constitutional convention of 1845, and at once measured arms 
with the ablest members in forensic debate. In 1846 and 1848 




TRUSTEN POLK. 



FEOM 1852 TO 1861. 



115 



he was elected to Congress, and again in 1856, but before 
lie took his seat was chosen United States Senator by the 
Legislature. He was a strong 
believer in State - rights, and 
his arraignment of Benton before 
the people of Missouri in 1849, 
when but thirty-two years of 
age, was one of the most ag- 
gressive and most successful 
warfares in political annals. He 
was a very strong debater. In 
the Senate he had peers but no 
master. He was the one man 
of all the members of that body 
that Stephen A. Douglas most 
disliked to meet. He was ex- 
pelled from the Senate early in 1861 for secession utterances. 
This ended his public career. 

134. James S. Rollins was born in 1812. His ancestry 
was of Irish and Virginia stock. His father was a man of 
wealth, and he received a thorough classical education. To 
him is largely due the educational system of Missouri. He is 
properly called the Father of the State University, and his 
efforts aided the public school system and secured the normal 
schools, the agricultural college, the school of mines, and two 
of the lunatic asjdums. He did much also toward building 
up the great railroad systems in the State. He came to Missouri 
in 1830 and spent a year on his father's farm, who had settled 




JAMES S. GREEN. 



116 



HISTORY OF MISSOURI. 



near Columbia, which place was Mr. Rollins' home till his 
death. He became a lawyer and practiced with distinction. He 
became a member of the Legislature at the age of twenty-six, 




JAMES S. ROLLINS. 

as a Whig. He was again elected in 1840, 1846, 1854, 1866 and 
1868, at least half of the time as a member of the Senate. The 
first bill he ever wrote was one providing for the establishment 
of the University, and the first speech he made in the Capitol 



FBOM 1852 TO 1861. 117 

was in support of this bill. It became a law in 1838. In 1848 
he was the Whig nominee for Governor against Austin King, and 
made a splendid canvass of the State in which he pleaded for 
general public education and internal improvements, and was 
defeated by 15,000 majority for King. He was again Whig 
candidate for Governor in 1857, against Robert M. Stewart, 
when there were no other officers to be elected, this election 
beino' to fill a vacancv caused bv the resignation of Governor 
Polk, who had been elected United States Senator. Stewart was 
elected by 231 majority. When the threatenings of dire war 
came on he was for the Union, but did not declare himself as 
unconditionally so until after the clouds of war had burst. He 
was elected to Congress in 1860 against John B. Henderson 
(Democrat), by about 275 majority, and again elected in 1862 
by a majority of over 5,000. In that body he boldly espoused 
the Union cause, and although a large slave-holder, ably 
supported and voted for the Thirteenth Amendment to the 
Constitution abolishing slavery. In 1862 he introduced the 
bill providing for the Pacific railroad from the Missouri river 
to the Pacific coast. It became a law. In 1872 Mr. Rollins 
was before the Democratic convention as a candidate for 
Governor, but was finally defeated by Silas Woodson. He died 
in 1889, full of honors and years. He was one of the ablest and 
most polished speakers in the State, and his speeches always 
abounded with the steadfastest patriotism. 

135. Robert Morris Stewart came from New York, where he 
was born in 1815, and received a good education. He taught 
school when he was seventeen and until he was twenty, moved 



118 



HISTORY OF MISSOURI. 



to Kentucky, studied law, was admitted to the bar at Louisville^ 
came to Missouri in 1839, in a few years settled in St. Joseph 
and practiced law. In 1845 he was elected to the State Consti- 
tutional Convention and soon gained a well-deserved reputation 
as a debater. From 1846 to 1857 he was a member of the State 
Senate. In 1857 when Governor Polk resigned, he was elected 

as a Democrat and made an 
excellent officer. When the 
question of secession was sub- 
mitted to the peoj)le, he was 
elected a delegate to the con- 
vention which was to finally 
decide the matter, as a Condi- 
tional Union man, but soon 
^ ardently and unconditionally sup- 
ported the Union, but not as 
an abolitionist, for he was always 
opposed to abolition, but as an 
opponent to secession and a 
steadfast adherent to the govern- 
ment his fathers had established. 
In 1848 he projected and survej^ed at his own expense the 
Hannibal and St. Joseph railroad, and obtained from Congress 
a grant of land which insured the building of the road. He 
also was tlie projector of the St. Joseph and Denver road. After 
his retirement as Governor, he became editor of the St. Joseph 
"Journal,'' till his health failed him. He was much afflicted, 
but of indomitable energy, and much of the surveys of these 




ROBERT M. STEWART. 



FBOM 1852 TO 1861. 119 

railroads was superintended by him while hobbling about on 
crutches. His decided stand against secession, when so much 
seemed to depend on the action of ^lissouri, helped to save 
the State to the Union, and made his action one of national 
consideration. He was never married, was a man of free-and- 
easy habits, and died in 1871. 

KANSAS TROUBLES. 

136. Sectional contention would not cease. In 1854 it arose 
afresh when a bill passed Congress organizing Kansas into a 
Territory. The Missouri Compromise had been repealed by 
that bill. The Compromise was the first effort made by Congress 
to interfere with the local institutions or affairs of a State. It 
cannot be wondered at then that all of Missouri's representatives 
in Congress were in favor of its repeal. But other States saw the 
injustice of such distinctions. The bill for the repeal passed 
overwhelmingly,, and declared in favor of letting the inhabitants 
of any new territory determine for themselves whether they 
wished slavery therein. By this privilege the people of Kansas 
could decide for themselves in favor of slavery or against 
it. This was the same doctrine as the fourth of the Jackson 
Resolutions. (See section 121.) 

137. Botli North and South wished to he triumphant in Kansas. 
The struggle is important as a part of the history of each, and 
especially of Missouri, because it was the last peaceful contest 
for political supremacy by each before final appeal to arms, and 
on the part of the South Missouri was the chief representative, 



120 HISTOR Y OF MISSO UEI. 

while Massachusetts was the most enthusiastic actor among the 
northern States. Long before the Kansas bill became a law 
it was generally supposed that Congress would pass it. To 
therefore gain a majority vote of the people of Kansas in 
declaring against slavery, Emigration Aid Companies and 
''Kansas Societies, Leagues and Committees" were organized 
in Massachusetts and throughout the North which sent out men 
to Kansas to be ready to vote. These companies practically sent 
out men only. As many as 223 men to five women were in one 
compan3^ A United States marshal who searched this company 
found no agricultural implements but many guns, revolvers 
and ammunition. All the companies were not as this one, but 
there were few actual settlers. By such a course it became 
evident that Kansas would become a free State. Nearly three 
thousand immigrants, mostly from Missouri, in search of new 
lands and wide range for their stock, had settled within this 
new Territory.' They cared but little for slavery themselves. 
But when they saw the purposes and results of the Emigrant 
Aid Companies they were constrained to do what they could to 
defeat those purposes. 

138. Counter Aid Societies were formed in Missouri. They 
were known as Blue Lodges. Their objects were the same as 
those of the Emigrant Aid Companies. Neither were right. 
But the Missourians thought themselves far less to blame for 
aiding in the formation of a new State adjoining their border 
and so far inhabited, in the main, by their own kinsmen than 
were people of a State a thousand miles away. Besides, the 
Blue Lodges were formed as a result of, and as a counter-balance 



FROM IS 52 TO 1861, 121 

to the Emigrant Aid Companies. Just ho\y many pretended 
settlers were sent out by either of these societies will never be 
known. Much illegal voting was done on both sides in the 
ensuing years, and a terrible guerrilla warfare was the result. 
The political rights of these ''settlers" came to be known as 
''squatter sovereignty." At the election in November 1854, a 
pro-slavery delegate was elected to Congress. The opposition 
charged that the Missourians had elected him by fraud. But 
they did not contest the legality of his election and he was 
allowed to take his seat, 

139. An election of the members of the Territorial Legislature 
which Congress had provided for was held in March 1855. 
The pro-slavery party, or the "Missourians," as it was called, 
was successful. In February previous a census showed an 
entire population of 8,601, and 2,905 voters, of whom a large 
majority were from slave States. There were 6,307 votes cast. 
The eastern immigrants charged that 5,000 Missourians had 
crossed over into Kansas Territory and voted. The pro-slavery 
men charged that a company of northern immigrants had arrived 
at Lawrence on the day of the election and voted notwithstanding 
such a short stay. Undoubtedly there was much illegal voting 
on both sides and the evidence seems to be strong, though not 
conclusive, that the Missourians were the chief sinners. The 
election of six pro-slavery members was contested, and the 
contest sustained, the Governor giving the certificates of election 
to the opposing anti-slavery candidates. He also took it upon 
himself, when there were no contests, to refuse certificates to 
two other members who had been elected by illegal votes. But 



122 HISTOR Y OF 311380 URL 

after these attempts at righting the matter the anti-slavery men 
were still dissatisfied. 

140. They refused to acknowledge the authority of this Terri- 
torial Legislature, or to be obedient to laws it passed. They 
disregarded its laws whenever they chose and resisted arrest 
whenever they were brought to account for so doing. Then 
began the active trouble. The grand jury made some indict- 
ments, and the sheriff attempted to arrest the offenders. They 
resisted, and the anti-slavery leaders, by speeches, through 
their papers and in many ways, urged them to do so. The 
sheriff ordered by-standers to assist him in making the arrests. 
The offenders would then be joined by anti-slavery sympathizers. 
These contending factions soon learned to rob each other, burn 
each others houses and destroy other property. From these 
differences in Kansas sprang many kinds of lawless and political 
crimes, and finally a civil war between the rival factions which 
did not end till the final establishment of the anti-slavery party 
in 1859. 

141. During these disturbances John Brown inaugurated a 
system of murder for opinion's sake and in the dead of night 
put to death five peaceable settlers whom he had never before 
seen, whose only crime was that they differed with him in regard 
to slavery. For this crime he went unpunished. Such a course 
soon brought into activity a set of robbers and marauders who 
were described as ''jayhawkers." The counties in Missouri 
adjoining Kansas now began to suffer. Their inhabitants had 
much more property to lose than those of Kansas because they 
w^ere older settlers. These marauders were not slow to learn this 



FBOM IS 52 TO 1861. 123 

fact. They cared as little for Missouri law as for Kansas 
authority. They came into these counties and took whatever 
they could. One of these raids was headed by John Brown, 
and was made in December 1858. He took away eleven slaves. 
A slave owner was also killed whose only crime seems to have 
been an objection to the way in which he was dispossessed of his 
property. This raid was made soon after the Governors of the 
two States had attempted to bring about reconciliation. There 
were other raids also, in which ''peaceable and law-abiding 
citizens" were subjected to outrages, insults and lawless violence. 
The General Assembly of Missouri appropriated thirty thousand 
dollars to be used by Governor Stewart as he thought best. 
Three thousand dollars were offered as a reward for John Brown. 
He nevertheless succeeded in conducting the negroes into Canada 
and then sold his stolen horses in Ohio. All his raids in 
Missouri were marked by blood. Yet he was received in many 
parts of the North, not as a monomaniac or a fugitive from law, 
but as a popular hero. The General Assembly of Missouri at 
the time it appropriated the thirty thousand dollars for the 
suppression of these raids declared it did ''not doubt that at 
least nmety-nnie out of every hundred of the citizens of Kansas 
deplore the events under consideration." The efforts put forth 
by the Legislature, the Governors of Missouri and Kansas, and 
the officers of the United States Army, partially quieted the 
troubles, and the guerrilla warfare ceased for two years. 

142. But in ISGO it began again. This time the jayhawkers 
were led by the desperate James Montgomery. They broke up 
a United States Court and compelled the judge and its officers 



124 HISTOR Y OF MISSO URL 

to flee for their lives. They also killed a citizen of Missouri 
by name Samuel Hindes. Their charge against him was that 
he was in search of runaway negroes. Congress had some time 
before this passed the Fugitive Slave Law, by which any slave 
owner was permitted to pursue a fugitive slave into a free State^ 
recover him and return to his home. It was while Hindes 
was in search of a fugitive slave in Kansas that Montgomery 
established himself at Fort Scott, a town just over the Missouri 
border, whence he declared he intended to ''clean out southern 
Missouri of its slaves." 

143. The people of Missouri became very much excited at 
these threats. Exaggerated reports were brought to Governor 
Stewart that Montgomery had begun to lay waste the country 
and that ''citizens of Missouri on the Osage and in Bates 
and Vernon, are flying from their homes into the interior." 
Brigadier-General D. M. Frost was ordered to proceed to the 
border with enough men to end the difficulty. He reached it in 
November 1860, with 650 troops, but found General Harney 
of the United States Army had preceded him. Montgomery, at 
the advance of these forces disbanded his jayhawkers and fled. 
Frost in his report to Governor Stewart said Hindes' "only 
crime was that he had been faithful to the laws and institutions 
of his State." He also says the "deserted and charred remains 
of once happy homes" were general. 

144. Jayliawhing now ceased as such, but it did not actually 
cease. It did not cease during the first two or three years of 
the civil war, nor indeed so long as there was left anything 
along the Missouri border for the "jayhawkers" to steal or 



FBOM 1852 TO 1861. 125 

anybody to rob. But they now came with United States com- 
missions in their pockets under '^ which guise they carried on a 
system of robbery and murder which left a good portion of the 
frontier of southeast Missouri an entire waste.*' 

145. The progress in wealth and jyojpulation from 1850 to 1860 
was enormous, notwithstanding the predatory disturbances on 
the Kansas border. The population had increased from 682,000 
to 1,182,000, a net increase of a half million, and an increase 
in percentage of seventy-three for the ten years. Of this number 
115,000 were slaves. Their increase had been 27,000, or thirty 
per cent. Of all the population 160,000, or one-seventh were 
foreign born in 1860. Of these 88,000 were German, and 43,000 
were Irish. The revolutions in Germany in 1849 had caused 
many of its inhabitants to seek safety in Missouri. This explains 
the large immigration of Germans during this decade. The 
failure of the potato crop in Ireland in 1846-47 will also explain 
the large immigration from that country. These new immigrants 
turned their attention mostly to farming, especially the Germans, 
and became useful and prosperous citizens. Missouri had risen 
in these ten years from the rank of thirteenth to eighth in the 
number of her population and was now the first of the Southern 
States. 

146. MissourVs -financial prosperiti/ was not behind the 
increase in population. The assessed value of her property had 
arisen from one hundred and thirty-seven million dollars in 
1850 to five hundred and one million in 1860, an increase of 
two hundred and sixty-five per cent. The property consisted 
mostly in farms and agricultural wealth. The manufactured 



126 HISTORY OF MISSOURI. 

products were estimated at forty million dollars in 1860 and the 
capital invested in factories was twenty millions. But much 
wealth was made known during this decade. By a system of 
surveys it became known that one-fifth of the State is underlaid 
with workable beds of coal; that there are ''more than a thousand 
valuable veins of lead and half as many of iron, besides many 
of zinc, copper, hydraulic lime-stone and other minerals. The 
new immigrants had also shown that much of the country south 
of the Osage river, heretofore regarded as worthless, was very 
valuable for grapes and other fruits. 



CHAPTER X. 

IS 60 AXB THE WAR. 



147. The new Republican jmrty — From the time John Quincy 
Adams became President in 1825 up to the election of 1852 
there had been two leading political parties, the Democratic 
and Whig. While the Whig party had among its members 
many of the ablest men of the nation yet it had never been 
successful at the polls, except in the election of Harrison in 1840 
and of Taylor in 1848. But in most of the free States many 
Whigs and Democrats had for some years been forming anti- 
slavery societies and the cause of the restriction of slavery was 
stirring the people. The troubles in Kansas and the debates in 
Congress on the subject had given new force to this cause, so 



1860 AXD THE WAB. 127 

that after the election in 1852, at which the Democrats elected 
Franklin Pierce to be President, the Whig party went out of 
existence and a new party wholly devoted to opposing the 
extension of slavery was formed. It in time took the name 
of Republican. In 1856 its candidate for the Presidency was 
John C. Fremont, a son-in-law of Thomas H. Benton. He 
received 115 of the 289 electoral votes, and hence the new part}^ 
had great hopes of success in 18G0. 

148. Public feeling ivas now at unrest and deeply disturbed. 
The agitation of abolition had stirred the people as nothing else 
had ever done. A large class of people in the North were 
determined to destroy slavery at any cost. Many people in the 
South felt that the only way to preserve their own peace and 
property was to quietly withdraw from the Union. Others 
believed it wisdom to remain in the Union and there settle their 
troubles. It seems strange now that any civilized people who 
had established and for seventy years lived under a republic 
of popular sovereignty, could have wished to perpetuate slavery. 
But there were mitigating circumstances. Slavery had originally 
existed in all the Colonies. When it became unprofitable in the 
North the slaves were sold into the South where it was profitable. 
Many of the now slave-owners had inherited it from their 
fathers and not sought it. Slaves were valuable property. Men 
have, in every civilized country, been slow to give up valuable 
property without resistance. Besides it was difficult to know 
what to do with the slaves if they were freed. Many persons 
feared the consequences if millions of ignorant people should 
be turned loose, penniless, among their old owners. Beyond 



128 HISTOR Y OF MISSO URL 

this, it can be said in all truthfulness that slavery had been a 
benefit to the slaves themselves. They had been taken from 
savage and barbarous races in Africa, and the discipline of 
slavery in America had taught them many of the habits of 
civilization. They had learned how to work, which always 
exalts a people ; had learned the arts of peace and frugal 
honesty. But slavery had been no benefit to the white people 
of the South, and a better reason for its extinction was the 
desire of the slaves themselves to be free. 

149. Tlie Fugitive Slave Law did much to aggravate the con- 
tentions and troubles between the North and South. It had been 
passed by Congress a few years before and gave to each slave-owner 
the right to pursue a runaway slave into any State and retake him 
without any verdict from a court declaring who was his rightful 
owner. All the claimant had to do was to exhibit to a marshal, 
a certificate from a county clerk describing the slave. The 
marshal was then required to put the slave into his peaceable 
possession. This law the United States Supreme Court said did 
not violate the Constitution. The decision gave great offense to 
the North. At least fourteen Northern States by their legislatures 
soon passed laws nullifying the Fugitive Slave Law by making it 
a crime for any sheriff to obey it, and by forbidding any State 
officer to aid in enforcing it. Their course made it impossible to 
enforce this law of Congress. The Southern States then argued if 
fourteen Northern States could thus nullify a law of the Union 
that they could withdraw from that Union. In the Presidential 
campaign of 1860 the Breckenridge party in the South declared 
if the Republican party were successful at the polls the Southern 



1860 AND THE WAB. 129 

States would withdraw from the Union. When it did succeed 
they proceeded at once to carry out that threat. 

150. The Election. — The Democratic party in 1860 divided 
into two factions. One part, known as the State-rights men, 
nominated John C. Breckenridge of Kentucky for President. 
The other part, which was opposed to secession and to the 
interference of the national go^^ernment with the local affairs 
and institutions of any State, nominated Stephen A. Douglas 
of Illinois. The remnant of the old Whig and Know-nothing 
parties,, now known as Constitution-Union men, nominated 
John Bell of Tennessee for President and . Edward Everett of 
Massachusetts for Vice-President. The Republicans nominated 
Abraham Lincoln. The contest in Missouri was warm and 
intense, but not violent. The State was carried by Mr. Douglas 
which was the only State that gave him its electoral vote. 
Mr. Lincoln was elected. The number of votes for Douglas in 
Missouri was 58,801, for Bell 58,372, for Breckenridge 31,317, 
for Lincoln 17,028. Nearly all those voting for Lincoln were 
Germans. Of those who voted for Breckenridge, not half were 
in favor of secession. Many of them had come from the South, 
-and in the intense excitement of the time their sympathies 
naturally enlisted them with the ''Southern Rights men" who 
carried every Southern State. Besides most of them, perhaps 
-all, opposed the interference by Congress with the reserved 
rights of the States, but did not wish to carry this opposition 
to the extreme of secession. 

151. On the State ticket the Democrats did not divide. Their 
candidate was Claiborn F. Jackson of Saline county, who was 



130 HISTOR Y OF MISSO URL 

a Douglas Democrat and who received 74,446 votes. Sample Orr, 
an ''American" or ''Know-nothing," received 64,583 votes. 
The Breckenridge candidate was Hancock Jackson, who received 
11,415 votes. James Gardenhire was the Republican candidate; 
he received only 6,135 votes. Mr. Jackson was elected. 



CHAPTER XI. 

THE FIRST MONTHS OF IS 61, 



152. Tlie Situation.— On December 20th, 1860, South 
Carolina, through her Legislature, declared she no longer owed 
any allegiance to the Union. Within six weeks Mississippi, 
Florida, Alabama, Louisiana, Georgia and Texas — seven States — 
seceded. As Missouri was at this time the first in population 
of the slave-holding States and as most of her people were of 
Southern origin, it may be seen at once that she was now 
confronted with the gravest problem she had ever had to settle. 

153. The Governors. Robert M. Stewart, the retiring Gov- 
ernor, had been reared in New York and his feelings naturally 
inclined him with the North. He sincerely desired to keep 
Missouri in the Union. But he was opposed to forcing South 
Carolina and the other seceded States back into the Union, and 
if the Union should undertake to do tliis he was opposed to 
Missouri helping in the undertaking. He was also opposed to 
troops coming into Missouri either to wrest her from the Union 



THE FIRST MONTHS OF 1861. 131 

or keep her in it. He stated the proper position for Missouri 
to assume and adhere to, was '^ armed neutrality." He set 
forth all these points forcibly in his last message in which he 
said: ''If South Carolina and other Cotton States persist in 
secession Missouri will desire to see them go in peace, with a 
hope that a short experience at separate government will induce 
them to return to their former position. In the meantime 
Missouri will hold herself in readiness, at any moment, to 
defend her soil from pollution and her property from plunder 
by fanatics and marauders, come from what quarter they may." 
He closed his message by saying : ''I here record my unalterable 
devotion to the Union so long as it may be made the protector 
of equal rights." There can be no doubt, as subsequent events 
under more exasperating tests showed, that at this time the 
great majority of the people of Missouri were of the same opinion 
as Governor Stewart. The votes given the various candidates 
in November showed this and the vote in February made it still 
more clear. 

154. Governor Jackson, unlike Governor Stewart, had been 
reared in the South, and many social and political ties, bound 
him to her people. In his inaugural address he declared that 
all Missouri wished was ''to be let alone." He believed the 
Northern States had, by passing laws which nullified the 
"Fugitive Slave Law," themselves practically abandoned the 
Union. He believed if arms were employed by the general 
government to force a State back into the Union that it would 
be such an insult as all the States ought to resent, and in that 
event the true position for Missouri would be to secede and 



132 



HISTORY OF MISSOURI. 



unite' with the South. He declared ''the destiny of the slave- 
holding States is one and the same. Their common origin, 
pursuits, tastes, manners and customs bind them together in 
one sisterhood. And Missouri will, in my opinion, best consult 




CLAIBORNE F. JACKSON. 



her own interests, and the interests of the whole country, by a 
timely determination to stand by her sister slave-holding States." 
It cannot be denied that Governor Jackson was at this time in 
favor of Missouri's seceding if the federal government should 



THE FIRST MONTHS OF IS 61. 133 

make war on the seceded States to force them back into the 
Union, but until that was done he was not in favor of secession. 
Even this position he afterwards abandoned, when the seceded 
States attempted to capture the government forts and arsenals 
within their respective borders. He, then took the position at 
first declared by Stewart that the proper course for Missouri was 
to preserve an ''armed neutrality," and keep out of the State 
all ''marauders come from what quarter they may," but to take 
no part herself in the conflict between the States. 

155. The Legislature. The Lieutenant-Governor, whose duty 
it is to preside over the Senate, was Thomas C. Reynolds. From 
the outset he was in favor of secession, because he believed it 
impossible for Missouri to preserve an ''armed neutrality" in 
the impending conflict, which he saw was inevitable. He 
accordingly urged the General Assembly to declare Missouri 
determined to resist all attempts by the federal government to 
force the seceded States back into the Union or to collect the 
government revenue in those States. He also urged that to 
make her able to resist coercion she must organize and enlarge 
her military forces. He appointed all the committees of the 
Senate in accordance with his views, and placed men on these 
committees who would endeavor to shape legislation in keeping 
therewith. Bills were immediately introduced in both houses 
to arm and equip the State militia and to provide for a 
State convention to consider what position Missouri should 
take in regard to secession. These bills were received with 
prompt and almost unanimous approval in the General 
Assembly. 



134 HISTORY OF MISSOURI. 

156. The First Gun. Events seemed to be rapidly urging 
Missouri on to secession, and the Southern Rights men were 
''exultant and even defiant." But just at this time an event 
took place which made the supporters of the Union bold and 
aggressive. President Buchanan had sent a war vessel, the 
''Star of the West," laden with stores, guns and ammunition, 
for the purpose of strengthening Fort Sumter and other arsenals 
in South Carolina. As she attempted to land at Charleston the 
South Carolina forces fired on her, drove her back, and the first 
gun of the war was fired. Northern men now thought only of 
resenting the insult to the flag, and this occurrence put new 
purpose in them and iron in their purposes. But Southern men 
were enraged by the President's attempt to overawe them by 
sending this vessel and strengthening these forts, and were 
equally determined. 

157. The bill creating the convention passed the General 
Assembly and became a law on January 18th. In the Senate 
there were only two votes against it. In the House there were 
eighteen against and one hundred and five for it. The duties 
and powers thus committed to this convention were contained 
in the following words creating it, which said it was "to consider 
the then existing relations between the United States, the people 
and governments of the different States, and the government 
and State of Missouri ; and to adopt such measures for 
vindicating the sovereignty of the State and the protection of its 
institutions as shall appear to them to be demanded." The law 
also provided if such convention should finally pass a secession 
ordinance that it should never be valid until submitted to the 



THE FIRST MONTHS OF 1861. 135 

people and adopted by a majority of the qualified voters of the 
State. These '\j'Ords creating this convention are important, 
because the limit and extent of its powers are by them defined 
and the purposes of calling it set forth. In the subsequent 
pages it will be seen that the convention when it came together 
far exceeded the limitations and purposes contemplated by the 
Legislature and exercised powers never before claimed by any 
body in the State. It is to be further observed that whatever 
might have been the individual washes of the members of this 
General Assembly for secession, yet they voluntarily transferred 
what power they had to take Missouri out of the Union to other 
hands and were determined that no body of men should take her 
out, but that this must be done, if done at all, by the people 
themselves. 

158. The People. The election of delegates to this convention 
was to take place on February 18th, just one month after the 
bill creating it became a law. A thorough canvass was at once 
begun throughout the State and carried forward with great 
interest till the end. The people divided into three parties, 
namely. Secessionists, Conditional Union men and Unconditional 
Union men. The leaders of the Secessionists w^ere Governor 
Jackson, Lieutenant-Governor Reynolds, both United States 
Senators (James S. Green and Trusten Polk), General D. R. 
Atchison (formerly Ignited States Senator) and Thos. L. Snead 
(editor of the ''St. Louis Bulletin"). They did not desire the 
disruption of the Union, and deplored the haste of South 
Carolina and the other States in leaving it. But believing that 
all the seceded States would remain out of the L^nion and form 



136 HISTOR Y OF MISSO URL 

a separate Confederacy, they considered it the true duty of all 
the slave-holding States to unite together ; believing also, that 
if a separate confederacy were formed, there would be war 
between it and the Union, they felt they were bound by the 
strongest kindred ties to stand by the South. They were not 
especially devoted to slavery. In fact slavery was no longer 
the most prominent question in these discussions. It was from 
this time on put far in the background. The issue rose 
transcendently above this. ''They were secessionists only 
because they believed the Union had been dissolved, that its 
reconstruction was impossible, that war was inevitable, and that 
in war the place for Missouri was by the side of the Southern 
States, of which she was one;" so wrote the learned Thomas 
L. Snead, twenty years after the war had ended, who of all the 
Secessionists best understood the situation. 

159. The Conditional Union men were tlie most formidable 
opponents of the Secessionists. They M^ere led by Judge 
Hamilton R. Gamble of St. Louis, A. W. Doniphan of Clay, 
James S. Rollins of Boone, John B. Clark of Howard, ex-Gov- 
ernor Sterling Price of Chariton, ex-Governor R. M. Stewart of 
St. Joseph, William A. Hall of Randolph, John S. Phelps of 
Greene and Judge John F. Ryland of Lafayette, ably assisted by 
the ''Missouri Republican," then the ablest paper w^est of the 
Mississippi, and edited by the great Nathaniel Paschall, "a man 
of mature age, strong intellect and consummate common sense." 
These leaders were the ablest, most popular and most prominent 
men in the State, and it is doubtful if any State in the L^nion 
could have shown at that time a finer array of many-sided great 



THE FIRST MONTHS OF 1861 . 137 

men. Their astuteness, popularity, well-known patriotism, 
added to the fact that many of them were themselves large 
slave-owners, at once began to divide the Secessionists. They 
were for Union, provided the Federal Government would not 
attempt to force the seceded States back and coerce them into 
submission. They declared themselves ready to resist coercion. 
But they did not fear it. They pleaded with patriotic pride 
for the preservation of the Union of their fathers, which had 
been bought with blood and which had brought a thousand 
blessings to one curse ; they urged the people that they must 
not allow their feelings to control them, but must remember 
that the steps they took might involve their children and their 
children's children in untold misery. 

160. The Unconditional Union men were for the Union come 
what might. They believed the seceded States should be coerced 
into submission. The impersonation of this movement was 
Frank Blair. He saw that the only outcome of the trouble was 
war, that it must come in the near future and he was determined 
to hold Missouri for the Union. Blair contended that what was 
wanted in the convention were ^'men who were now and who 
would hereafter, under all circumstances, and in every 
emergency, be for the Union;" that he himself intended to 
stand by it to the last and to oppose in every way the secession 
of Missouri. At first his chief following was among the 
Germans, who had no kindred in the South, who had bought 
their lands from the Federal Government, who had enjoyed 
uninterrupted peace under it, and who felt that they should 
stand by it. But soon he had some able seconds. Thev were 



138 HISTOR Y OF MISSO URL 

Samuel T. Glover, James 0. Broadhead, B. Gratz Brown and 
Edward Bates, all of St. Louis. 

161. The election of ninety-nine delegates to this convention 
took place on February 18tli, and resulted in an overwhelming 
victory for the Union cause. Not a single avowed Secessionist 
was elected. The Union candidates received a total majority 
of 80,000, and the entire vote therefor was almost three-fourths 
of all the ballots cast. It was a great disappointment to the 
General Assembly, whose members had confidently looked for 
an overwhelming victory for secession. It put a stop to any 
preparations by it for war and for two months the discussions 
were mild, and submissive to the popular will. On the other 
hand the triumph of the Union men emboldened the convention, 
after a session or two, to take the extremest action. 



CHAPTER XIL 

THE CONVENTION. 



162. The Convention, whose members had been elected on 
the 18th of February, the very day on which Jefferson Davis 
had been inaugurated President of the Confederacy, met at 
Jefferson City on the last of the month. Ex-Governor Sterling 
Price was elected President. He was an avowed Union man. 
The fifteen State-rights men voted for Nathaniel W. Watkins, 
a half-brother of Henry Clay. Soon after organization the 



THE CONVENTION 



139 



Convention adjourned to meet in St. Louis on March the 4th, 
the day Lincohi became President. Its members were the ablest 
men in the State, now met at the time of the greatest crisis in 
its history, ''to consider its 
relations to the Government of 
the United States.". In the last 
pages of this volume may be 
found a list of these delegates 
and the counties for which they 
were delegated to act. Of the 
ninety-nine members fifty- three 
w^ere natives of either Virginia 
or Kentucky, three were Ger- 
mans and one an Irishman. 
Thirteen were from the North. 
Mr. Gamble who had been 
Supreme Judge of the State, 
Willard P. Hall the vice-pres- 
ident, Robert AVilson of great ability, James 0. Broadhead one 
of her ablest and most scholarly lawyers, and John B. Henderson 
always a steadfast opponent of secession, were Virginians. 

163. The Committee on Federal Relations, through its chair- 
man, Hamilton R. Gamble of St. Louis, on the 9th of March 
made a report declaring that secession by Missouri was "certainly 
not demanded." A part of the report said, "the true position 
of Missouri to assume is that of a State whose interests are bound 
up in the maintenance of the Union, and whose kind feelings 
and strong sympathies are with the people of the Southern 




JAMES O. BROADHEAD. 



140 HISTORY OF MISSOURI. 

States, with whom we are connected by the ties of friendship and 
blood." The resohitions were adopted by ahnost a unanimous 
vote, the opposition to each being only five or six votes. Thus 
was secession finally defeated. The Convention also declared the 
employment of military force to coerce the seceded States would 
plunge the country into war, and it therefore "earnestly en- 
treated" the federal Government and the seceded States "to with- 
hold and stay the arm of military power and upon no pretext 
whatever to bring upon the nation the horrors of civil war." 

164. A difference of opinion manifested itself in the conven- 
tion when the question was raised, what would Missouri do if the 
Pl'esident should call on her to furnish troops to coerce the 
seceded States? They were opposed to coercion, but what would 
Missouri do if she were going to remain in the Union, if 
Congress and the President determined to undertake coercion 
and should call on her for troops for the purpose? Mr. James 
H. Moss, a delegate of ability fi'om Clay county, said he would 
not vote for secession under any circumstances, and introduced 
a resolution asking the Convention to declare that Missouri would 
"never furnish men or money for the purpose of aiding the 
general Government in any attempts to coerce a seceding State." 
He supported the resolution warmly, and passionately pleaded 
with the Convention to pass it. He declared "Missouri would 
never, never furnish a regiment to invade a seceded State." 
William A. Hall, of Randolph, who had been a circuit judge for 
sixteen years, replied to Mr. Moss, in argument that could not 
be gainsaid, "if Missouri remained in the Union it would be her 
duty to furnish both men and money to the general Government 



THE COXYENTION. 141 

when properly called upon for them, whether to coerce a State 
into submission or for any other purpose." Mr. John B. Hen- 
derson, of Pike, declared "the President has no more power to 
use force than you or I," and that no man could believe the 
''President will so far disregard his duties under the Constitu- 
tion, or forget the obligations of his oath, as to undertake the 
subjugation of the Southern States by force." Mr. Prince L. 
Hudgins, a State-rights man from Andrew county, said: "I da 
not believe a State has a Constitutional right to secede; but seven 
States claim to have seceded, and I for one am anxious to bring 
them back. You cannot do this by threats, nor by force, nor by 
abuse." Nearly all the delegates spoke against coercion, yet the 
Moss resolution failed, some voting against it because it was 
useless, a greater number honestly accepting Judge Hall's logic. 
By ''the pitiless logic of facts" when the war did come on 
Mr. Moss raised and commanded a regiment for the subjugation 
of the South, and Mr. Henderson was one of the most ardent 
supporters of Lincoln in the use of force. And Mr. Hudgins 
before the next session of the Convention was arrested in St. 
Louis as a secessionist, thrown into prison and kept there until 
after the fall of Lexington, when he was exchanged for other 
prisoners. 

165. Adjourned. The Convention, after it passed these reso- 
lutions, brought its labors to a close and adjourned on March the 
22nd, subject to the call of the executive committee. By this last 
arrangement it provided a way for self-perpetuation till secession 
became utterly impossible, as we shall hereafter see. On the 
28th of the same month the Legislature adjourned without having 



142 HISTORY OF MISSOURI. 

made any arrangements for the war, or for raising and support- 
ing a militia for the protection of the State. In fact it may be 
said, in all truthfulness, that the vast majority of the people 
did not want war, nor did their desires go to the extent of even 
those of Governor Stewart, who counseled ''armed neutrality." 

166. The bill for arming the State, called the ''Military Bill," 
was taken up in the Legislature on March 5th. Governor Jackson 
urged its passage with all the power of his personal influence. 
It was favored by most of the State-rights members. But some 
Union men also favored it. They wished to prepare the State 
for defense from any kind of marauders ; but the majority of the 
members interpreted the recent election to mean that the people 
were opposed to secession and to any kind of warlike actions 
The bill was defeated, and Missouri again recorded her unwil- 
lingness to secede. 

167. The election of United States Senator this year throws 
some light on the position the General Assembly regarded the 
State as holding to secession. Early in the session when it 
became apparent that a convention would be held to consider the 
question of secession, the Legislature had determined not to elect 
a successor to James S. Green, whose term would expire on March 
the 3rd, till after it was learned whether the people preferred 
secession or the Union. When they voted for the Union, 
the Legislature proceeded to elect a Senator, on March 12th. 
Mr. Green had been one of the most popular men in the State, 
but he was an avowed secessionist. His election was therefore 
impossible, although on one ballot lie got 76 out of the 156 
votes cast. Waldo P. Johnson, of Osceola, St. Clair county, was 



THE ARSENAL AND CAMP JACKSON. 143 

elected on the 15tli ballot. As indicating the part taken in the 
war by those most prominent in bringing it on, it is proper here 
to remark that James S. Green, who was set aside for being a 
secessionist, ''did not raise his hand nor his voice for the South 
during the war, while Johnson, who had been elected because he 
was a good Union man, quickly resigned his seat in the Senate, 
entered the army, and fought for the Confederacy till the end of 
the war." 



CHAPTER XIII. 

THE ARSENAL AND CAMP JACKSON. 

168. There was a Government Arsenal in St. Louis, well stored 
with forty thousand or more stand of arms and other valuable 
munitions of war. This arsenal now became the center of all 
warlike intentions. Both sides wanted it, in the event that 
there was to be war. Governor Jackson had all along believed 
the war to be inevitable, and if it came he believed Missouri 
would be the natural ally of the South, and he determined to 
put her on that side if he could. He did not declare this purpose 
publicly, but he instructed General Frost, who had gone into 
camp just at the edge of St. Louis after his return from the 
Kansas troubles with about 700 men, to keep himself well 
informed of all movements and if he deemed it necessary, to 
seize the arsenal and hold it for future disposal. General Frost in 



144 HISTOR Y OF MISSO UBL 

furtherance of this plan waited upon its commander, Major Bell, 
who frankly told him tluit he thought the State had a right to 
claim the arsenal as being on her soil and that he would not 
defend it against the proper State authorities, but would against 
''all irresponsible mobs." But before Frost could thus peaceably 
take possession of the arsenal, it was supplied with additional 
troojDS, Major Bell was relieved of command, and Major Hagner 
put in his place, and by the 18th of February, the day on which 
the State voted not to secede, there were four or five hundred 
soldiers behind the walls, able to repulse almost any attack 
which might be made on it, and on the next day General Harney 
notified the President that there was no danger of an attack and 
never had been. In this condition of things each side would 
have gone on without any disturbance from the other, had there 
not appeared on the scene a man who was ready for war. This 
man was Captain Nathaniel Lyon. 

169. Captain Lyon was born at Ashford, Connecticut, 
educated at West Point and was an officer of the regular army. 
He was at this time forty-three years old and is described as 
having been "of less than medium height; slender and 
angular ; with abu-ndant hair of a sandy color, and a coarse, 
reddish-brown beard. He had deep-set blue eyes, and features 
that were rough and homely." His disposition made him 
fretful and impatieii^ under restraint. He could see only one 
side of a question, "but he saw that with terrible earnestness, and 
with no patience with any person who saw the other side. All 
persons who did not agree with him he regarded as being 
influenced by unworthy or improper motives. He was devoted 



THE ARSENAL AND CAMP JACKSON. 



145 



to the Union and always eager to crush those who were not. 
Upon his arrival at St. Louis he at once set to work to make 




himself department commander, and never ceased until he had 
been given almost unlimited power to do as he pleased.. His 
chief helper was Frank Blair, who at all times pushed him 



146 HISTOR Y OF MISSO URL 

forward. Yet he was restive, and this led him to fear that 
Mr. Lincohi ''lacked the resolution to grapple with treason and 
to put it down forever." He thought the best thing to do with 
a conservative man like Major Hagner was to ''pitch him in the 
river." He had been in Kansas through all its border troubles 
between the Free-soil and the Pro-slavery men. He had formed 
the greatest dislike to the latter and in the troubles between the 
two factions said he foresaw "sectional strife, which I do not 
care to delay." He came to St. Louis possessed with this idea 
and feeling, and at once went to drilling the "Wide Awakes" 
and other volunteer soldiers, and those quartered within the 
arsenal. In this he showed the greatest diligence and skill. He 
inspired every one with his own courage and zeal. By the 
middle of April, four regiments had been enlisted, and he 
proceeded to arm them with guns from the arsenal. With this 
well-trained force he and Blair felt strong enough to attack the 
State government, and they lost no time in finding a pretext for 
so doing. 

170. A Call For Troops. — Fort Sumter surrendered on April 
13th, 1861. On the same day President Lincoln issued a 
proclamation "for seventy-five thousand men to suppress 
combinations too powerful to be suppressed by the ordinary 
course of judicial proceedings," and on the same day the 
Secretary of War telegraphed Governor Jackson his requisition 
for four regiments of infantry. On the 16th the Governor 
replied, "not one man will the State of Missouri furnish to 
carry on an unholy crusade upon the seceded States." The 
people of Missouri indorsed the Governor's reply, but to Blair 



THE ARSENAL AND CAMP JACKSON. 147 

and Lyon it was reason enough to make an attack upon Frost. 
Besides, this reply was supplemented by frequent reports that 
guns and ammunitions, obtained from the Government arsenal 
in Louisiana, had been secretly brought up the river and 
conveyed to Camp Jackson, where Frost's little command was 
now encamped. 

171. Liberty Arsenal. — There was another Government arsenal 
about four miles south of Liberty in Clay county. It was in 
charge of Major Nathaniel Grant and two other men, and 
contained about 11,000 pounds of powder, about 1,500 guns and 
twenty or thirty small cannon. On April 20th, just six days 
after President Lincoln's call for troops, 200 men under the 
command of Colonel H. L. Routt, most of them from Clay and 
Jackson counties, quietly took possession of this arsenal, with 
no interruption except the protests and railings of Grant, at 
whom they only laughed. Within the next few days they 
carried away most of the guns and powder. These were never 
retaken but were used in after years in the service of the 
Confederacy. The captors, however, seemed to have had no 
other purpose than to supply themselves with arms and 
ammunition for whatever troubles that might arise. But the 
capture of this arsenal and the reports about Camp Jackson 
determined Lyon on making the attack upon that camp. 

172. New Regiments . — Besides he had been encouraged by a 
special order from the Secretary of War at Washington, Mr. Simon 
Cameron, who on April 30th directed him to "enroll ten thousand 
loyal citizens of St. Louis and vicinity." Five new regiments 
were enrolled under this order, known as the ''Home Guards," 



148 HISTORY OF MISSOURI. 

while the other live regiments already enrolled were known as 
Missouri Volunteers. The first regiment of the Missouri Volun- 
teers was composed mostly of natives of this country and Irishmen. 
The other nine were composed almost exclusively of Germans. 

173. The time was noiv opportune to make the attack. General 
Harney, who was in charge of the department, and to whom 
therefore Lyon and Blair were inferior officers, had been 
summoned to Washington to answer for his official conduct on 
the complaint of Blair. This complaint was founded on a conflict 
between Lyon's troops and the St. Louis police. Lyon had been 
patroling the streets in front of the arsenal with his troops. This 
was in violation of the city laws and an interference with the 
duties of the Board of Police Commissioners. The Board 
complained to Lyon and demanded that he should obey the laws. 
Lyon refused. The Board was powerless to enforce their 
complaints in the face of his well armed troops, and appealed 
to General Harney. He ordered Lyon to withdraw his patrols 
into the limits of the arsenal and not to issue arms to anyone 
except by his sanction. This led Blair to charge Harney to the 
Secretary of War, as having controverted his orders, and in 
consequence Harney was summoned to Washington to defend 
himself. Harney, who was opposed to any aggressive attacks, 
was now out of the way and Lyon was left in full command. 

174. General Lyon, disguised as an old woman, on May the 
9th, the next day after the arms and ammunitions had been 
received at Camp Jackson from Louisiana, drove through the 
camp, and satisfied himself that the men had in their possession 
guns and ammunitions which had been taken from the captured 



THE ARSENAL AND CAMP JACKSON 149 

United States arsenal at Baton Rouge and which rightfully 
belonged, in his opinion, to the federal Government. These 
were easily to be seen, for Frost had required them to be stacked 
outside at the entrance to the regular camp. Lyon returned and 
reported that the camp was ''a nest of traitors." This was 
Thursday the 9th. Harney would return on Sunday. He and 
Blair determined on an attack forthwith, and that it should be 
made next day. On the next morning, General Frost, who had 
for two days been receiving reports that Lyon would make an 
attack on his camp, addressed him a letter in which he denied 
that he or any part of his command was actuated by any hostile 
intentions to the federal Government, and closed by adding: 
^'I trust after this explicit statement we may be able, by fully 
understanding each other, to keep far from our borders the mis- 
fortunes which unhappily afflict our common country." But 
Lyon refused to receive the letter and sent it back. His troops 
were already forming for the march to the camp, which he 
declared was made up mostly of secessionists, who were plotting 
to overthrow the Government's authority. 

175. The Attack. — He surrounded the camp with his well 
disciplined soldiers, and sent a demand to Frost for his imme- 
diate and unconditional surrender. As his force numbered 7,000 
men and more, and Frost's 700, the latter at once did so. The 
captured soldiers stacked their arms and were arranged in a line 
along Olive street, which was occupied by Lyon's troops, there 
halted and kept standing over an hour. Great numbers of men, 
women and children from the city gathered around the troops 
and prisoners, and at times attacked the troops with stones, and 



150 HISTOR Y OF MISSO URL 

called them, in derision, "Dutch Blackguards," because one of the 
German companies called itself Die Schwartze Garde (the Black 
Guard). The soldiers resented this by firing into the crowd, first 
with a few shots, which were almost immediately "followed by 
volley after volley." When the firing ceased twenty-eight 
persons lay dead or mortally wounded, among them three of the 
prisoners who had only a little while before surrendered, and an 
infant in the arms of its mother and one of Lyon's soldiers. 
The march was at once resumed to the arsenal and the next day 
the prisoners were released on their own parole not to bear arms 
against the Government while the Civil War should last. 

176. The attack upon Camp Jackson proved to be a bl under. 
It was intended to crush out all spirit of secession in the State 
and completely disarm and crush the influence of those who 
wished it to secede. This number was small. It will be remem- 
bered that the question of secession had been submitted to the 
people on February 18th and had been declared against by a 
majority of eighty thousand votes. Since that time instead of 
gaining, the secession sentiment had waned. Even the doctrine 
of the numerous Conditional Union men, that Missouri would 
secede only when the federal Government should attempt to 
coerce and force the seceded States back into the Union, had 
been abandoned, and most of those who had prior to February 
18th held to this view, had prepared to quietly submit to this 
attempted coercion. With the exception of Governor Jackson 
and a handful of his enthusiastic followers, the vast majority of 
the people preferred that Missouri should remain in the Union 
and take no part in the Civil War, now already begun in other 



THE ARSENAL AND CAMP JACKSON. 151 

States. But now every thing was changed. In the twinkling of 
an eye, a thrill of horror ran through the State at the needless 
killing of private citizens and surrendered prisoners by a foreign- 
born soldiery led by an unrelenting captain from another State, 
whose course seemed to receive the entire sanction of President 
Lincoln. The news was telegraphed to Jefferson City. At that 
very time it happened the ''Military Bill," designed for the 
organization of the State militia for any emergency that might 
arise, was being considered and had been under consideration for 
several days. It was being successfully opposed, because it was 
believed the people had pronounced against any military prepara- 
tions, and for the further reason that it was feared the Governor 
might use the militia in aid of secession. The bill for these 
reasons could never have been passed had not the Camp Jackson 
affair occurred. But as an indication of the popular revulsion 
and excitement that the United States forces had attacked the 
State's forces, within fifteen minutes after the news had been 
received at the Capitol the Military Bill had been rushed through 
both houses of the General Assembly, and was ready for the 
Governor's signature. Within five days the Legislature passed 
laws authorizing the expenditure of over two million dollars "to 
repel invasion and put down rebellion," as it said. 

177. Preparations for the War by both sides now went on 
apace. Hundreds of men who, up to this time, remained loyal 
to the Union felt themselves driven into the secession movement 
by the unfortunate affair at Camp Jackson. Among them 
was Sterling Price, who had been Governor of the State from 
1853-57, and who had reflected great glory upon Missouri in the 



152 HISTORY OF MISSOURI. 

Mexican War. He now offered his sword to Governor Jackson 
to fight for what he declared to be in defense of the State. He 
was appointed major-general of ' 'Missouri State Guards." The 
State was divided into eight military districts and over each was 
appointed a brigadier-general to organize and drill the militia. 
For this purpose Governor Jackson appointed A. W. Doniphan, 
Monroe M. Parsons, James S. Rains, John B. Clark, Thomas A. 
Harris, Nathaniel W. Watkins, A. E. Steen, W. Y. .Slack and 
James H. McBride; Colonel Doniphan, however, refused to accept 
the appointment, but remained steadfast in his allegiance to the 
Union, yet took no part in the war. 

178. General Harney had in the meantime returned to St. 
Louis. He deemed the attack on Camp Jackson as proper and 
just, and said two of the streets of the camp were called Davis 
and Beauregard, after Jefferson Davis and the general who had 
led the attack on Fort Sumter, and that soldiers therein had 
openly worn the dress and badge of Confederate soldiers. He 
issued a proclamation on May 14th in which he declared ''No 
Government in the world would be entitled to respect that would,- 
for a moment, tolerate such openly treasonable preparations," 
and announced that the whole power of the United States 
would be employed, if necessary, to maintain its authority 
as ''the supreme law of the land." Beyond this he wished 
only to preserve the general peace and to protect all loyal 
citizens from violence of any kind. On May 17th he asked 
the War Department for ten thousand stand of arms, and 
that nine thousand men should be furnished him by Iowa and 
^Minnesota. 



THE ARSENAL AND CAMP JACKSON. 153 

179. Price-Harney Agreement. — -While these preparations for 
war were going on, conservative men appealed to Harney and 
Price to preserve the peace and agree upon a plan of neutrality; 
General Harney accordingly sent an invitation to General Price 
to meet him for the purpose of forming such an agreement, 
which Price, with Governor Jackson's approval, readily ac- 
cepted. The Price-Harney agreement was formed, wherein each 
avowed it was his purpose ^'to restore peace and good order," 
and Price was to be intrusted with the duty of keeping order in 
the State, subject to the laws of the Federal and State govern- 
ments. H this were done the people were assured by Harney 
that he would have no occasion, as he had no wish, ''to make 
military movements in the State which might create jealousies or 
excitement.'" In accordance with this agreement. Price dis- 
missed the troops at Jefferson City. But because the agreement, 
which Harney said produced a good effect throughout the State, 
did not include that all military organization should cease and the 
militia be dispersed, this action of Harney's gave great offense 
to Blair and Lyon, who at once determined upon his removal. 
Accordingly, 0. D. Filley, as a member of the St. Louis ''Safety 
Committee," which had all along supported Lyon and Blair, sent 
out a circular letter to every part of the State asking that full 
and detailed reports be sent in of all offensive treatment of loyal 
Union men by the secession element. These reports were very 
voluminous. They were forwarded to President Lincoln, who 
sincerely believed them, but Harney did not, but declared 
that Price was faithfully carrying out his part of the agree- 
ment. The President thought these outrages "should be 



154 HISTOR Y OF MISSO URL 

stopped," and therefore relieved Harney, and put General Lyon 
in conimand. 

180. War Declared. General Lyon was no longer impeded 
by a conservative superior officer, but was left free to pursue any 
course he pleased. Both sides began at once to again make 
active preparations for the war. But before much had been 
done William A. Hall and other honorable citizens made another 
effort to prevent a conflict, and persuaded Governor Jackson to 
ask an interview with General Lyon ''for the purpose of effecting 
a pacific solution of the troubles of Missouri." Lyon regarded 
Governor Jackson as a traitor, but if he should come to St. Louis 
for this purpose, Lyon promised that he would not arrest him 
while there or on his way back to the capital. Accordingly the 
interview took place at the Planters' House, St. Louis, on the 
11th of June. The Governor was accompanied by General Price 
and Thomas L. Snead, who appeared for the State, while Lyon, 
Blair and Major Conant represented the federal Government. 
General Lyon led the conference for his side, which lasted for 
four or five hours. In a proclamation which the Governor 
published next day he declared that in this interview he had 
proposed to Lyon and Blair: ''That I would disband the State 
Guard and break up its organization ; that I would disarm all 
the companies which had been armed by the State ; that I would 
pledge myself not to attempt to organize the militia under the 
Military Bill ; that no arms or other munitions of war should 
be brought into the State ; that I would protect all citizens 
equally in all their rights, regardless of their political opinions; 
that I would suppress all insurrectionary movements within the 



THE ARSENAL AND CAMP JACKSON. 155 

State ; that I would repel all attempts to invade it from whatever 
quarter and by whomsoever made ; and that I would thus 
maintain a strict neutrality in the present unhappy contest, and 
preserve the peace of the State." This was a clear abandonment 
of secession by the Governor, but the proposition was made upon 
the condition that the federal Government would undertake to 
disarm the Home Guards, and would pledge itself not to occupy 
with its troops any locality in the State not occupied by them 
at that time. Finally, when this proposition had been fully 
discussed (till all present understood it), Lyon suddenly broke 
up the conference by this reply: '^Rather than concede to the 
State of Missouri the right to demand that my Government shall 
not enlist troops within her limits, or bring troops into the State 
whenever it pleases, or move its troops at its own will into, out 
of, or through the State ; rather than concede to the State of 
Missouri for one instant the right to dictate to my Government 
in any matter however unimportant, I would" (pointing to 
everyone in the room) ''see you, and you, and you, and you, 
and you, and every man, woman and child in the State, dead and 
buried. This means war;" and, turning to the Governor, he 
said; "in an hour one of my officers will call for you and 
conduct you out of my lines." And it did mean war. Men who 
had known and loved each other for years, now bade farewell 
and turned away, a part to fight for the Union, the other part 
for the State. 

181. Francis Preston Blair was born at Lexington, Kentucky, 
February 19, 1821, and died in St. Louis, Missouri, July 8, 1875. 
He was a descendant of the Blairs and Prestons of Virginia, two 



156 



HISTORY OF MLSSOURL 



families of great excellence and marked intellect. His father was 
Francis Preston Blair, the trusted adviser of Andrew Jackson 
and afterwards of Mr. Lincoln. A truer type of the American 




FRANK P. BLAIR. 



patriot was never known than the elder Blair. At the age of 
nine Frank went with his father to Washington and was well 
instructed in the hest schools. At twenty he graduated at the 



THE ARSENAL AND CAMP JACKSON 157 

renowned Princeton College. Two years later he graduated in 
law from the Transylvania University of Kentucky. He came 
to St. Louis and began the practice of law with painstaking 
energy. His health failing, he went in 1845 to New Mexico and 
took part in setting in operation the government of the United 
States in that newly conquered territory. He returned to 
Missouri, again pursued his profession, and in 1852 and 185S 
was elected to the Missouri General Assembly. He espoused the 
cause of Free-soil and Emancipation with greatest energy and 
courage. At that time his cause was most unpopular, but no 
kind of threats or intimidation deflected him from his course. 
He gained but little following outside of St. Louis, but in that 
city the German citizens were his strong supporters. In 1856 
he had so thoroughly organized the Free-soil party that he was 
elected to Congress, and was again elected in 1858 and 1860. In 
1858 his party candidates were elected to the municipal offices 
of St. Louis and held them without interruption to the close of 
the war. He foresaw the impending struggle in Missouri long 
before other men did and he set about to crush every effort at 
secession, and not till the last gun was fired did he cease. He 
held a ratification meeting of Mr. Lincoln's nomination in 1860, 
which was much disturbed by some lawless persons. To put a 
stop to this he organized a kind of vigilance company or body- 
guard known as the "Wide Awakes." These accompanied him 
wherever he went in his canvass and protected him from 
insult and his audiences from being dispersed. He afterwards 
organized them into the first Union company formed in the 
State and was made its captain. Then he enlarged it into a 



158 HISTOR Y OF MISSO URL 

regiment and was elected its colonel. Then he went off to the 
war, and neither side ever had a braver officer nor one who did 
harder fighting. He took part under General Grant in the siege 
of Vicksburg in 1863, and was in the hottest of all the fight. 
''During the siege, by an order of Grant, he laid waste the 
country for fifty miles around Vicksburg, drove off the white 
inhabitants, burned the grist mills, cotton gins and granaries, 
and destroyed the crops." On the death of General McPherson 
he was made general of the seventeenth army corps. He did 
valiant service ujider General Sherman in the subjugation of 
Tennessee and continued with him till the close of the war, 
always bearing the brunt of battle. He took part in the siege 
of Atlanta and in the subsequent ''march to the sea," in which 
his men were always in front, and never went hungry if there 
was anything to forage on, and for this reason they w^ere often 
accused of wantonness. 

He had always been opposed to the radical emancipationists 
and in 1863 again offered himself in St. Louis as a Conservative 
Republican candidate for Congress. He got 153 more votes than 
Mr. Knox, the Radical Republican, but Congress declared the 
latter elected. When the war was over Mr. Blair was found 
to be the best friend of the vanquished in the State. He was 
a man of steel and iron to crush out secession, but when the 
secessionists yielded he laid down his arms. He had fought 
for the Union and won, and he wished to re-establish it in its 
best sense as a Union of the whole people. He returned to 
Missouri and found hard, rigid laws which disfranchised half 
of the citizens of his former days before the war. He could 



BOONVILLE, CARTHAGE AND COWSKIN PRAIRIE. 159 

have had any office in the gift of the State for the acceptance, 
but he voluntarily put all aside, and espoused the cause of the 
disfranchised men. He canvassed the State, amid great danger 
and insult, and finally won. President Johnson nominated him 
for many offices but the Senate always refused to confirm the 
appointments. In 1868 he was a candidate for Vice-President 
on the Democratic ticket with Seymour. In 1871 he was a 
member of the State Legislature and was elected United States 
Senator, to fill out the unexpired term of Charles D. Drake, and 
served till March 4th, 1873. 



CHAPTER XIV. 

BOONVILLE, CARTHAGE AND COWSKIN PRAIRIE. 

182o Jackson and Price hastened to Jeferson City immediately 
after the conference with Lyon, arriving there at two o'clock in 
the morning. Before daylight the Governor had issued his 
proclamation, setting forth in full the propositions of the con- 
ference, and asking for fifty thousand volunteers "for the 
purpose,", he said, "of repelling the attack that had been made 
on the State and for the protection of the lives, liberties and 
property of her citizens." He also sent orders to the com- 
manders of the different military districts (mentioned in section 
177), to assemble their men and prepare for active service. On 
the next day he and Price, and the State officers with the State 



160 HISTOR Y OF MISSO URL 

papers, hastily set out for Boonville, General Price having 
previously caused the railroad bridges over the Osage and 
Gasconade to be destroyed so as to prevent Lyon's approach by 
rail, and directed General Parsons, who had collected a small 
force, to retire to a point along the Missouri Pacific railroad and 
there await orders. On his arrival at Boonville Jackson found 
General John B. Clark already there with several hundred men. 
They continued to arrive during the next two days, and came in 
little squads from all around the country, but mostly from north 
of the river where Clark and Price and Jackson were greatly 
beloved. But Price soon became convinced that it would be 
impossible for him to hold the river against the superior force of 
General Lyon, who was rapidly moving up the river. He 
needed time to organize an army, train the troops who knew 
nothing at all of a soldier's duties and to furnish them with guns 
and ammunition. He, therefore, leaving Jackson and Clark 
behind him, hastened on to Lexington, His plan was to assume 
command of the troops who had been assembling at that point, 
which had been threatened by a large body of Kansas and 
national forces, and withdraw them to the southwest, where he 
hoped for time to organize, arm and equip them. 

183. Tlie movements of General Lyon were equally active. 
Immediately after the conference in St. Louis with Jackson and 
Price, he telegraphed to Washington for 5,000 stand of arms 
and authority to enlist more troops in Missouri. Both requests 
were immediately granted. He ordered Colonels Sigel, Salomon 
and B. Gratz Brown with their regiments to set out for Spring- 
field. Brigadier-General Thomas W. Sweeney was put in 



BOONVILLE, CARTHAGE AND COWSKIN PRAIRIE. 161 

command of this expedition, and its object was to intercept 
Governor Jackson if he should attempt to retreat to Arkansas. 
Lyon himself took 2,000 well trained troops and started by boat 
next day for Jefferson City. He arrived there on the 15th of 
June, and leaving Colonel Boernstein and 300 men to hold the 
city, he himself proceeded up the river. When within eight 
miles of Boonville, he landed most of his men, and caused the 
boats to move on past the city with the rest, in order to deceive 
Jackson as to his real movement. 

184. The Battle of Boonville was fought on Monday, June 
17th, between Colonel Marmaduke with less than 500 men, and 
General Lyon with over three times that number. The engage- 
ment was sharp and was kept up for some time. It took place 
one mile east of the city and resulted in routing Marmaduke, 
with two men killed and five slightly wounded. Lyon's loss 
was two men killed and nine wounded. Jackson was now 
obliged to beat a hasty retreat to the southwest, which he did 
with his entire force, including General Parsons who had joined 
him at Boonville on the very day of the fight with Lyon. Lyon 
remained at Boonville two weeks waiting for his transportations, 
and thoroughly discouraging any secession movements by his 
very presence. This battle of Boonville, trifling as it may 
appear from the amount of fighting done, proved to be perhaps 
the most important to the Union cause fought in Missouri 
during the entire war. It was the first real fight between the 
State and Union forces and the Union had won. It was fought 
on the part of the State, by volunteers alone. When these were 
defeated it almost put a stop to volunteer enlistment in Price's 



162 



HISTORY OF MISSOURI. 



army. The ardor of the Southern sympathizers had led them 
to believe that Jackson's forces would gain this battle. When 
he failed they were so discouraged and -calmed that they quietly 
submitted. All north Missouri was now in complete subjection. 
At Lexington Price was threatened with a force of 2,500 men 
from Kansas under Major Sturgis. He therefore ordered his 
troops to proceed southward under command of General Rains, 
to join Jackson, and set out himself for Arkansas to induce 
General Ben. McCulloch with a large Confederate army to enter 
the State and assist in driving Lyon from it. 

186. The Battle of Carthage. Jackson retreated southward 
rapidly. His force consisted of between six and seven thousand 

men, so badly organized and so 
poorly supplied with arms and 
ammunition that it was little 
better than a mob. At Lamar 
he was joined by Rains and as 
he approached Carthage he sud- 
denly found Colonel Sigel in 
his front, with about a thousand 
well armed men. On July 5th a 
line of battle w^as drawn on a 
ridge which gently inclined to- 
wards Coon creek, about nine 
miles from Carthage. About 
2,600 infantry armed with shot- 
guns and rifles, and 1,500 mounted men similarly armed, took 
part in the fight on the part of the State troops. Sigel opened 




MAJ.-GEN. FRANZ SIGEL. 



BOONVILLE, CARTHAGE AND COWSKIN PRAIRIE. 163 

the fight with a steady fire of shot, grape and shell. It was kept 
up for about an hour, when about two thousand of Jackson's 
unarmed men were ordered to take shelter in the skirting of 
woods on his right. Sigel did not know they were unarmed but 
supposed they were ordered to attack him in the rear, and with- 
drew his men in good order beyond the creek. There he left 
Essig's battery and five companies of infantry to prevent the 
State troops from crossing. When the troops got within 400 
yards of the ford they were met by the well directed shots from 
Essig's battery. Here the hottest fighting of the day followed. 
But Generals Clark and Parsons managed to cross at another 
ford, and were about to cut off any possibility of Essig's escape. 
He therefore fell back to the main body of Sigel's army, who 
continued his retreat on to Sarcoxie, fifteen miles away. Sigel's 
loss was thirteen killed and thirty-one wounded. Jackson's loss 
was ten killed and sixty-four wounded. The losses on each 
side have often been erroneously reported to be three or four 
hundred. 

186. Other Movements. — The day after the battle of Carthage, 
Governor Jackson entered that city with his army, and there was 
met by General Price, who had been successful in Arkansas in 
inducing General McCulloch to cross the border with several 
regiments of Confederate and Arkansas troops, and who had on 
July the 5th captured a company of 137 men, whom Sigel had 
left at Neosho for the protection of that town. They also 
captured what they regarded still more highly, namely, 150 
stand of arms and six wagons laden with supplies. Here for the 
first time the State troops came in sight of Confederate soldiers 



164 HIS TOR Y OF MISSO URL 

and they were hailed with loud huzzas and great rejoicings. 
On July 9th Price went into camp on Cowskin Prairie, in 
McDonald county, for the purpose of organizing his army. 

187. Governor Jackson Leaves the State. On July 12th Gover- 
nor Jackson left for Memphis, in order to persuade General Polk, 
to whose command all the country west of the Mississippi was 
attached, to send into Missouri a sufficient Confederate force to 
repossess the State. This was now necessary to his fortunes, as 
it was well known that one of the first acts of the Convention, 
which had been called to reassemble on July 22nd, would be to 
depose Jackson, and elect a Governor of its own choosing, and 
organize a State government to wield the power of the State 
against the South. Polk ordered General Pillow to take 6,000 
men from West Tennessee and move them by way of New Madrid 
into Missouri. There they would be joined by a force of State 
troops under Jeff. Thompson. The object was to move upon 
Jefferson City, threaten St. Louis as they passed, drive the 
Federal forces from the State and re-establish Jackson at the State 
capital. General Pillow did move to Missouri but not until it 
was too late to do Jackson any good. Besides, his movement 
was only a feint. On August 3rd, General Fremont with nine 
large vessels and a large force of troops dropped down the Mis- 
sissippi river to Bird's Point, and virtually caused Pillow and 
Thompson to abandon their invasion, though he did not fire a 
gun, and in a few days returned to St. Louis. 

188. Lyon's Movement. — We left General Lyon at Boonville. 
On the 17th of June he issued a proclamation in which he stated 
the Governor and Legislature had adopted means to effect a 



BOONVILLE, CARTHAGE AND COWSKIN PRAIRIE. 165 

separation of the State from the Union, that they sympathized 
with the secession movement, that constant complaints had been 
made to him, accompanied by appeals for relief, against the 
hardships of the Military Bill. This relief he considered it the 
duty of a just government to give. He remained in Boonville 
two wee'ks and then set out to run Jackson down, give him battle 
and compel him to surrender or drive him from the State. 

189. General Fremont in Command. — Before leaving Boon- 
ville Lyon had been informed that Missouri had been detached 
from the Department of the West and added to the Department 
of the Ohio, commanded by General George B. McClellan. 
General Blair at once set out for Washington to obtain a revoca- 
tion of the order making this change. He did not succeed, but 
finally persuaded the Administration to organize Illinois and all 
the country west of the Mississippi to the Rocky Mountains into 
the ''Western Department" under the command of General John 
C. Fremont who took control July 26tli with headquarters at 
St. Louis. Colonel John D. Stevenson was placed in command 
of the Missouri from its mouth to Kansas City, given a sufficient 
force to garrison Jefferson City, Boonville and Lexington, and 
ordered to protect the loyal inhabitants of adjacent counties, to 
disperse all gatherings of hostile men and prevent volunteers 
from crossing the river to Price. All the rest of the State north 
of the river was intrusted to Colonel Samuel Curtis, who had 
already occupied parts of it with Iowa troops. Southeast 
Missouri was held by an ample force gathered at Cairo, Illinois, 
under General Prentiss. Then Lyon started for Springfield. He 
arrived within twelve miles of that place on July 12th, and, 



166 HISTOR Y OF MISSO URL 

* 'accompanied by a body-guard of ten stalwart troopers for his 
especial escort, he dashed through the streets of the city on his 
iron-grey horse, his bearded warriors being mounted on powerful 
chargers and armed to the teeth with great revolvers and massive 
swords." The next day he telegraphed to headquarters that 
Governor Jackson was in that vicinity with not less than 30,000 
men, and asked for 10,000 additional troops. As a matter of 
fact Jackson had on the previous day left for Arkansas, and the 
entire combined force of Lyon's foes did not at any time amount 
to over 15,000 men, armed and unarmed. 

190. Organization. — Lyon's two weeks delay at Boonville 
proved invaluable to Price. After the battle at Carthage he led 
his troops toward Cowskin Prairie, and there had a breathing 
spell, and began at once a systematic organization of his army 
and energetic preparations for an active campaign. He had 
few arms or military supplies of any kind, and no money with 
which to procure them. But he needed no money to pay the men. 
They never expected any pay, had never been promised any, but 
had volunteered their services to fight for the State and to help 
the Governor maintain its dignity and himself at its head as its 
rightful executive, as they believed. They were intelligent men; 
such men imbued with the spirit and purposes which actuated 
them, can alw^ays devise munitions of war. Governor Jackson on 
leaving the capital had brought along a supply of powder. The 
lead was taken from the Granby mines near by. One of the 
officers. Major Thomas H. Price, devised from the trunks of large 
trees monster molds for buckshot and bullets. There were a few 
cannons in the army, but no ammunition for them, either. The 



THE BATTLE OF WILSON'S CREEK, 167 

way these were prepared is thus told by Lieutenant Barlow, who 
was an officer of artillery : ^'One of Sigel's captured wagons 
furnished a few round shot ; with these for a beginning, 'an 
arsenal of construction' was established. The owner of a tin- 
shop contributed canisters ; iron rods which a blacksmith gave 
and cut into small pieces made good slugs, and a bolt of flannel, 
with needles and thread, provided material for cartridge bags. 
A bayonet made a good candle-stick, and at night the men went 
to work making cartridges and filling the bags from a barrel of 
powder placed some distance from the candle." The work of 
organizing and equipping the State Guard thus went on apace, 
and by the end of July it was ready to take the field with an 
effective force of 5,000 men armed with hunting rifles, shotguns, 
a few cannons and a few army guns, while 2,000 more unarmed 
men were waiting to pick up the guns of those who might be 
stricken in battle or by disease. 



CHAPTER XV. 

THE BATTLE OF WILSON'S CREEK. 

191. Forward Movements. — On the 28th and 29th of July 
General Price, with a force of 5,000 armed and 2,000 unarmed 
Missourians, General McCulloch with a brigade of 3,200 well 
armed men, and General Pearce with 2,500 Arkansas troops, in 
all nearly 13,000 men, began to unite their forces near Cassville, 



168 HISTOR Y OF MISSO URL 

fifty-two miles southeast of Springfield. On the 31st they started 
for that city. Lyon learned of the movement next day, but was 
led to believe they were marching upon the city by separate 
routes. He determined therefore to attack them in detail and 
started the same day to meet the force advancing from Cassville. 
He went twenty-four miles in that direction, but being unable to 
learn anything about the army in front of him, which was, in 
fact, the entire forces of Pearce, Price and McCulloch, and fear- 
ful that they, with their larger force, would flank him and cut off 
all communication with Springfield, on Monday, August 3rd, he 
returned thither. By this time McCulloch had pretty well lost 
confidence in ''the undisciplined mob" of Missouri troops, and in 
order to pacify him General Price, who was a far abler general, 
yielded to him the chief command. McCulloch followed Lyon 
toward Springfield to Wilson's Creek, about nine miles south- 
east. Here he camped in a considerable valley, within reach of 
some ripening cornfields, which were to be the only subsistence 
of his army for the next day or two. Near the ford across this 
creek the valley was narrow, and toward the west was a hill 
gradually rising from the creek to a height of nearly one hundred 
feet, and covered with undergrowth and scrub-oak trees. This 
hill has since been known as "Bloody Hill," and here on 
Saturday, August 10th, 1861, was fought the bloody battle of 
Wilson's Creek. 

General McCulloch still hesitated to move on Springfield 
and attack Lyon. He delayed till Friday when Price, having 
heard that General Lyon was greatly perplexed, notified him 
that unless he moved at once he would resume command him- 



THE BATTLE OF WILSON'S CREEK. 169 

self and make the fight with his forces alone. McCuUoch 
yielded, and that night the combined troops were ordered to rest 
on their arms prepared to march at any moment. General Lyon, 
who had always overestimated the size of the armies in front of 
him, had received no assistance from General Fremont, who was 
now in charge of the Western Department. Two regiments had 
been ordered to him from Kansas and the Missouri river. But 
these could not reach him inside of two weeks. By that time 
the enlistments of one-third of his men would expire, and as 
they had received no pay, he knew that they would not re-enlist 
but would return home. He believed it would be defeat to fight. 
Yet he knew to retreat was to turn over to Price all southwest 
Missouri, perhaps all the State except St. Louis, to lead 
thousands of volunteers to join Price's army, to discourage the 
Union cause and to re-establish Jackson as Governor. Defeat 
was better than this. He would hazard battle rather than 
retreat. Friday, August 9th, he ordered Colonel Sigel to set out 
late in the afternoon with his entire force of 1,200 men, turn the 
Confederates' right flank and attack them in the rear. He him- 
self set out with -4,200 men. About midnight he halted within 
two miles of Bloody Hill, and on the next morning at dawn 
started for that point. At five o'clock he came in contact with 
the advance State forces under Hunter, which fell back over the 
brow of Bloody Hill. As they did so Lyon opened on them with 
his cannon, and immediately Sigel, who had completely gained 
the Confederate right, responded with his guns upon the eastern 
outposts. McCulloch hastened off to meet Sigel and Price to 
engage Lyon. Price's and Lyon's forces formed within three 



170 HISTORY OF MISSOURI. 

hundred yards of each other, but the undergrowth kept them 
entirely concealed. Price deployed three thousand and one 
hundred men under Generals Clark, Parsons and McBride along 
the eastern declivity ; Lyon, leaving the rest of his men for 
reserve, took one thousand nine hundred of them and formed 
along the western side, his under officers being the afterwards 
famous Generals Schofield, Totten, Sturgis, Granger, Elliott and 
Osterhaus. Price waited for Lyon to make the attack. This he 
did soon after six o'clock. ^'Forward" rang along the lines and 
was plainly heard by both sides. Then followed the crackling of 
the brush through which Lyon's men were advancing, then the 
sharp click of a thousand rifles, the reply of a thousand shot- 
guns and the roar of the cannon. The battle raged for five 
hours with desperate fury. '^The lines approached again and 
again within less than fifty yards of each other, and then, after 
delivering a deadly fire, each would fall back a few paces to re- 
form and re-load, only to advance again to this strange battle in 
the woods." Frequently the deepest silence would fall upon 
the men after one of these charges. The two armies were 
grappling in a death struggle for Missouri. 

About nine o'clock Sigel had been completely routed with 
very little hard fighting and was in full retreat to Springfield. 
His men had taken instant flight on the dashing onslaught of 
the third Louisiana regiment, which they took for Iowa friends. 
Throwing themselves into the brush which lined both sides of 
the road, they became separated. Sigel and Salomon, with about 
two hundred Germans and Carr's company of cavalry, started 
for Springfield, but were suddenly set upon by Colonel Major, 



THE BATTLE OF WILSON'S CREEK. 171 

with some mounted Missourians and Texans. The Germans 
being abandoned by Carr, were nearly all either killed, wounded 
or captured. Sigel reached Springfield with one man only. 

The entire Confederate force, after the defeat of Sigel, was 
ordered to assist Price in his conflict with Lyon. Seeing all this 
army concentrating before him, Lyon determined to dash upon 
Price with all his might and crush him to the ground before 
these gathering forces could come to his relief. Then followed 
the hottest fight of the day. "The engagement at once became 
general and desperately fierce along the entire line. Price's men 
appearing in front, often in three or four ranks, lying down, 
kneeling and standing, and the lines often approaching within 
thirty or forty yards." Walking along in front of his men, 
now broken down by the long night-march and four hours' hard 
fighting, the intrepid Lyon encouraged them to make one more 
effort to win the day. Suddenly, his horse was shot from under 
him, and he himself was wounded in the head and in the leg. 
He was stunned for the moment, and was heard to confusedly 
say he feared the day was lost. Then recovering himself, he 
mounted another horse and rode gallantly along the lines, 
waving his hat and urging his men to follow. The soldiers 
instantly closed around him, and together they dashed into the 
fight. The next moment a ball had pierced Lyon's breast and 
he was dead. The command fell on Major Sturgis, who ordered 
retreat. The Union forces moved away in perfect order from 
the field for which they had fought so bravely and so ably. 

192. The results of the battle. Of the 5,400 Union men 
who took part in the fight 1,317 officers and men were killed. 



172 HISTOR Y OF MISSO URL 

wounded or missing. The heaviest loss was by the first Missouri 
regiment of vokinteers (Blair's old regiment) and Osterhaus' 
battalion which lost 350 out of 925 men, or about thirty-seven 
per cent. General Lyon, every brigadier-general and every 
colonel engaged on Bloody Hill were either killed or wounded, 
so that the army was led off by a major. The total loss of the 
Confederate and State troops was 1,230 killed and wounded, out 
of 10,000 men who in some way took part in the battle. The 
heaviest loss was among Churchill's Arkansas regiment which 
lost 197 men out of 500, or thirty-nine per cent. Colonels 
Weightman, Foster, Kelly, Burbridge, Cawthon and Ben Brown 
were killed ; Generals Slack and Clark and Price were wounded . 
The total number wounded, killed and missing on both sides 
was 2,547, or sixteen per cent. Of the 7,700 men who took 
part in the battle on Bloody Hill, on both sides, 1,880 or about 
twenty-five per cent were killed or wounded. Old soldiers who 
took part in the battle have frequently corroborated each other 
in stating that on one acre of the field where the battle was 
fiercest, at least half the surface was covered with dead or 
dying men. 

193. TJie Dead. Major Sturgis reached Springfield about 
five o'clock with the rest of Lyon's army. In the afternoon 
he had sent an officer under a flag of truce to beg the body of 
General Lyon. After the great soldier had been killed his 
body was borne to the shade of a tree near by, and when retreat 
was ordered it was obeyed so hastily that the body was left 
behind. It was now conveyed to Springfield in General Price's 
own wagon, which he proffered for the purpose. The next 



THE BATTLE OF WILSON'S CREEK. 173 

morning the whole Union army continued its retreat to 
RoUa, and in the confusion of starting, Lyon's body was 
again forgotten. Mrs. John S. Phelps, wife of the afterwards 
Goyernor, had it buried in Springfield. Soon afterwards it was 
disinterred and sent to Connecticut, his natiye State, and there 
finally buried. After the battle the Confederates remained on 
the field which they had won, and ministered to the wounded 
and buried the dead of both armies. Before sunset on that 
withering hot day, all those who had died for the Union and 
all those who had died for the State, and all those who had 
died for the South, had been laid side by side under the sod. 

194. The Retreat. — Lyon's army had been completely 
defeated. It was now at the mercy of Price and McCulloch 
if they chose to pursue. It had an immense and richly-laden 
wagon train and other ''spoils" yalued at $1,500,000. These 
it undertook to conduct safely to Rolla. Their adyersaries had 
come out of the battle with six or eight thousand men who 
had scarcely fired a gun. Besides, the battle gaye them plenty 
of arms and ammunition. They could also haye had this 
immense army train, and thereby supplies for their army for 
months. But McCulloch refused to follow up the yictory and 
take easy possession of the fruit which the rules of war made 
his. He was a Confederate officer in command of a Confederate 
army. He had been stationed in Arkansas for the defense of 
Indian Territory. His duty was to defend, not to attack. 
Missouri was yet in the Union. He had no authority to attack 
a loyal State. He had repelled Lyon's intended inyasion of 
Arkansas and Indian Territory, and haying succeeded he now 



174 HISTOR Y OF MISSO URL 

conceived it his duty to withdraw from Missouri. In vain did 
Price beg him to lead the forces against the retreating Union 
army. To have done so would have been to retake the State 
within sixty days. Price was unable to accomplish this 
movement with his forces alone, and before he could undertake 
it the Union army had increased to many times larger than 
his own. Sturgis made the trip to Rolla in peace. On the 
w^ay he w^as joined by many fugitives, who with their wives 
and children, cattle and horses, wagons and household goods, 
were fleeing before the victorious army. On August 17th, he 
arrived at Rolla, 150 miles northeast of Springfield. 

195. Distinguished Men. It is worthy of note that at least 
seven of the officers who took part in the battle of Wilson's 
creek afterwards became major-generals in the Union army, 
among whom were Schofield, Stanley, Steele, Sigel, Granger, 
Osterhaus and Herron; also that thirteen of them became 
brigadier-generals, among whom were Sturgis, Carr, Plummer, 
Mitchell, Sweeney, Totten, Gilbert and Powell Clayton. Among 
the Missourians who rose to the rank of general, were Price, 
Parsons, Slack, Jo. Shelby, John B. Clark, Jr., Colton Green, 
and Frank Cockrell. 



THE LAST MONTHS OF 1 861 . 175 



CHAPTER XVI. 

THE LAST MONTHS OF 1861. 

196.' The second meeting of the Convention, which, instead of 
dissolving after its March session, had only taken a recess to 
reconvene at the call of its executive committee, was begun in 
Jefferson City on July 22nd. Its former president, Ex-Governor 
Price, had accepted the position of major-general of the State 
troops, and his seat was declared vacant from that fact. Gene- 
ral Robert Wilson, of Buchanan county, was elected president 
in his stead. The Convention then entered upon some extra- 
ordinary proceedings. On July 3rd it declared the office of 
Governor vacant and elected one of its own members, Hamilton 
R. Gamble, of St. Louis, Governor in Jackson's place. It 
declared the office of Lieutenant-Governor vacant and elected 
Willard P. Hall, of St. Joseph, in Mr. Reynolds' stead. It went 
further and declared the offices of the members of the Legislature 
vacant and agreed upon a time for electing their successors. 
Before that time had arrived the election was postponed, by 
subsequent sessions, till November 1862, and before an election 
was held at all, it passed laws prescribing that no person should 
be allowed to vote who did not indorse the actions of the Conven- 
tion. It went still further and began to perform the duties of 
the General Assembly, and these duties it exercised for seventeen 
months before giving the people a chance to elect a new Governor 



176 HISTOR Y OF MISSO URL 

ill Jackson's place, or a new Legislature in place of the one whose 
powers it had assumed. These acts of the Convention have 
usually been excused on the ground of military necessity. That 
the great mass of the people quietly submitted to such a change, 
was positive proof that they realized the State was now in the 
midst of a great war, which required the exercise of new and 
extraordinary powers of the body which assumed to act for the 
State; and whether they approved of the course of the Convention 
or not as being the best policy, it remains true that nearly all its 
members were conservative, loyal men, who at all times had in 
mind only to secure peace and keep the State in the Union. 
As soon as it was certain that the destiny of the State would be 
safely Union in the hands of a new Legislature, the Convention 
laid down its assumed powers and permitted the Legislature to 
exercise them as it had done in former days. 

197. Proclamations. — On August 3rd, 1861, Governor 
Gamble issued his first proclamation. He announced himself 
for the Union. He stated that many persons had joined 
Jackson's or Price's army under a sense of duty to State 
authority. He announced that they were under no such obli- 
gation ; that the act of the Legislature by which the State 
Guard — the name by which Price's troops were known — was 
organized, had been set aside by the Convention, and, therefore, 
was not binding on the people of the State. He commanded the 
State Guards to disband and return home, and the troops 
belonging to the Confederacy to depart from the State. He 
promised that all those citizens in arms who would return to 
their allegiance to the Union and become loyal and peaceable 



THE LAST MONTHS OF 1861. 177 

should have the Union's protection. On August the 24th he issued 
another prochimation calling for 32,000 men to enlist for six 
months 'Ho protect the lives and property of the citizens of the 
State." On August 5th Governor Jackson, who had returned to 
the State, issued from New Madrid his proclamation which he 
called the Declaration of Independence of the State of Missouri. 
After reciting various usurpations and outrages by the Federal 
military and civil authorities against the people of Missouri, he 
declared "in their name, by their authority and on their behalf, 
the political connection heretofore existing between said States 
and the people and government of Missouri is, and ought to be, 
totally dissolved ; and that the State of Missouri as a Sovereign, 
Free and Independent Republic, has full power to levy war, 
conclude peace, establish commerce, contract alliances and do all 
other acts and things which independent States may of right 
do." This proclamation was pretty generally laughed at. It 
was issued for the purpose of strengthening the secession cause 
in Missouri, but gave Jackson's enemies in the Convention and 
out of it an additional argument for their claim that Missouri 
could be kept in the Union only by an armed force to fight down 
all opposition. In November, General Price issued his procla- 
mation, also, in which he said he was ardently "struggling, in 
behalf of a bleeding country, against the most causeless and 
cruel despotism known among civilized men," and asked for 
50,000 new volunteers. Only a few thousands responded to this 
call. 

198. Fremont's Proclamation. General Fremont, who was 
more of a cavalier than a soldier, busied himself in issuing his 



178 HISTORY OF MISSOURI, 

''emancipation proclamation," which was finally done on August 
30th. He declared martial law throughout the whole State, 
suspended the civil courts and declared all persons who should 
be taken with arms in their hands should be tried by a court- 
martial, and, if found guilty, should be shot. He further 
declared all property of every kind of all persons who had or 
would take up arms against the United States should be confis- 
cated to the public use, and all their slaves set free. President 
Lincoln set aside all that part of this ''proclamation" which 
related to confiscation of property and liberation of slaves. 

199. Battle of Lexington. After the battle of Wilson's Creek, 
General McCulloch withdrew to Indian Territory, General Pearce 
took his Arkansas troops back to Arkansas, and General Price 
started north for the Missouri river. On the 13th of September 
his forces drew up in front of Lexington, and on the 18th began 
besieging the place. The Union troops were well intrenched 
behind good embankments on Masonic College Hill, the present 
location of Central Female College. General James A. Mulligan 
was in command with about 1,500 Missourians and an equal 
number of Illinois troops. General Price's men numbered about 
7,000 fit for service. They made movable breastworks of bales of 
hemp, under shelter of which they approached within thirty 
yards of Mulligan's works. The siege was kept up for fifty-two 
hours. Then Mulligan surrendered. According to General 
Price the fruits of this victory were 3,000 prisoners, 5 pieces of 
artillery, over 3,000 stand of arms, 750 horses, about $100,000 
worth of commissary stores and a large amount of other property. 
He also obtained the restoration of "$900,000 in money which 



THE LAST MONTHS OF 1861. 179 

» 

had been taken from a bank in the city." During the siege both 
armies underwent great hardships. When it first began 
thousands of Price's troops, who had not slept or eaten for 36 
hours, fought desperately all day. When Mulligan surrendered, 
his men were entirely out of water, and all they had had during 
a great part of the siege had been obtained by catching the water 
of a slight rain in their blankets and then wringing them in 
buckets. 

200. Hunter and HaUecJc. After the battle of Lexington, 
feeling keenly the loss of that important place and the previous 
death of General Lyon, Fremont took the field himself on the 
27th of September with 20,000 men well armed. Three days 
later General Price abandoned Lexington, having held that place 
only a week, and started southward. Fremont, who had gone 
to Jefferson City expecting Price would attack him there, also 
turned southward, following almost the route previously traveled 
by Lj^on. Several little squads of Confederates or State troops 
were run into along the march to Springfield, and some sharp 
skirmishing, but no hard-fought battle took place. When the 
Osage river was reached a rude bridge was constructed after a 
few days, and all the troops, now swelled to 30,000, crossed 
over and proceeded rapidly to Springfield where Price was 
supposed to be. On November 2d, Fremont received notice 
that he had been relieved of command and replaced by General 
David Hunter, who was some distance in the rear. Nevertheless, 
110 of his officers requested him to lead the forces against Price. 
He stated that unless Hunter came up by night he would do so. 
Hunter failed to come up. The whole army was preparing to 



180 HISTOR Y OF MISSO URL 

« 

move before dawn, but at midnight Hunter arrived, set 
Fremont's order aside, then fell back from Springfield and in 
five days was himself superseded by Halleck, w^ho continued 
to fall back, and so 1861 closed with no more battles. 

201. The Secession Legislature. While General Price w^as 
at Lexington, Governor Jackson issued a call from that place 
for the General Assembly to meet on October 21st at Neosho 
in the southwest corner of the State, where it could be under 
the shelter of Price's army. Just how many members were 
present is not known, for the records of its proceedings were 
lost. Perhaps not a quorum of either house. If this were true, 
its actions could not be binding upon the State. Yet it is true 
that it passed a secession act by which it declared Missouri 
withdrawn from the Union. It elected John B. Clark, Sr., 
and R. L. Y. Peyton to the Confederate Senate at Richmond, 
Virginia, and eight other gentlemen to the House. For purposes 
of its own the Confederacy chose to recognize these acts of the 
Legislature as legal, and admitted Missouri into the Confed- 
eracy. There can be no doubt that many of the people indorsed 
the action of this Legislature. In fact, ever since the attack 
on Camp Jackson, public sentiment had been growing for 
secession. But the Convention, which some months before this 
declared vacant the seats of the members of the Legislature, still 
exercised the duties of that body and was sustained by the strong 
hand of military power. In its subsequent dealings with the 
State, Congress chose to recognize the Convention as being the 
only powder that could take Missouri out of the Union. Con- 
sequently the State never seceded. But after this ''Secession 



THE LAST MONTHS OF IS 61. 



181 



Act" the organization of the State Guard ceased, and all those 
who ''went south" and joined the Confederate army were known 
as Confederates, although it was more than three months after 
this before any of them ever saw 
a Confederate flag. Soon after this 
Governor Jackson went south and 
remained out of the State most of 
the time till his death, which 
occurred at Little Rock, December 
6th, 1862. From that time on 
Thomas C. Reynolds, the Lieuten- 
ant-Governor, acted in Jackson's 
stead till the people elected Thos. 
C. Fletcher Governor, in 1864. Of 
course the power he exercised was 
limited, and was in dispute of 
the right of Gamble to act as 
Governor of the State. He ap- 
pointed members to the Confederate Congress, both House and 
Senate, and made a few other like appointments, but aside from 
this he was Governor only in name. 




THOMAS C. REYNOLDS. 



182 HISTORY OF MISSOURI, 

CHAPTER XVII . 

EVENTS IN 1862. 

202. Order No. 2^. The war had produced local disturbances 
in nearly every county in the State, and in some localities 
neither life nor property was safe. But in St. Louis everything 
was orderly and the Union forces there were in full control. 
From this reason many avowed supporters of the Union cause 
had taken refuge in the city. General Halleck, on December 
12th, issued ''Order No. 24," making assessments on certain 
wealthy citizens of the city, who favored the cause of Governor 
Jackson or the Confederacy, by which the}^ were required to 
contribute money for the support of these refugees. Some of 
these citizens refused to pay the assessments and their property 
was seized by force. Samuel Engier, a prominent merchant, 
did not approve of this summary way of taking away his 
property, and attempted to recover it by suit at law. For so 
doing he and his lawyer were arrested and lodged in a military 
prison. After this the assessments were generally paid. This 
method of raising funds was repeated during the next few years 
by the various little commands stationed at different points in 
the State and great sums of money were thus obtained. 

203. Oilier Orders. The Convention at its third session in 
October, had passed a law that no person should hold any civil 
office in the State who did not, within sixty days, take an oath to 
support the Union and the acts of the Convention. General 



E VENTS m 1862. 183 

Halleck issued an order extending this law to include the Mer- 
cantile Library of St. Louis, all the officers of railroads in the 
State and all the professors in the State University, ''which 
should not be used," he declared, ''to teach treason or to instruct 
traitors." Any officer who refused to take this oath was replaced 
by one tliat did. The Provost Marshal also issued his order 
requiring a copy of all newspapers to be sent to him, that their 
loyalty might be inspected, and if any paper was not so sent it 
was suppressed. 

204. Battle of Pea Ridge. General Halleck had wintered a 
large part of Fremont's army in and around Lebanon, Laclede 
county, under command of General Curtis, while General Price 
remained around Springfield. On February 11th, 1862, Curtis 
moved out upon Price who fell back towards Cassville, then 
across the State line into Arkansas, where he was joined by 
General McCulloch, and General Albert Pike with a large number 
of Indians and white troops from Indian Territory. It was as 
Price's troops came in sight of McCulloch 's men that they for 
the first time saw a Confederate flag — about the middle of Feb- 
ruary, 1862. These, added to Price's 8,000 Missourians, made 
a grand army of nearly 20,000 men, and the whole was placed 
under the command of General Van Dorn, a very courageous and 
daring officer. Curtis, with perhaps a less number of troops, 
followed Price at some distance, and encamped near Pea Ridge, 
a little place only a few miles over the line in Arkansas and 
about thirty miles from Cassville. Hei'e, early in the morning 
of March 6th, 1862, he w^as vigorously attacked by Van Dorn, 
and a bloody battle followed, which was skilfully and 



184 HISTORY OF MISSOURI. 

desperately fought on both sides. It histed for three days, with 
ever-changing fortunes to the opposing forces. At one time it 
seemed that the Union cause would win, then the opposition, 
then again the Union. On the third day victory perched on the 
Federal banner, and the Confederates retreated. The Union 
loss was 1,351 killed, wounded and missing. The Confederate 
loss was about the same. General McCulloch was killed, so was 
General Mcintosh and General W. Y. Slack, of Chillicothe, Mo., 
and General Price was wounded in the arm. 

205. Price joins the Confederacy. One month after the battle 
of Pea Ridge General Price published an order in which he bade 
farewell to the State Guard. Shortly afterward he was trans- 
ferred to the east side of the Mississippi with about 5,000 State 
troops who had followed him into the Confederacy, and from 
this time on they were known as Confederate troops. They 
were from time to time joined by other Missourians, but it is not 
likely that the number ever exceeded ten thousand men. Of 
their subsequent career it is not proper here to speak. Suffice 
it to say that this band of men fought on till the 9th of April, 
1865, and on that day, the very one on which Lee surrendered, 
their number now reduced to 400, they fired their last gun at 
Fort Blakely on the Gulf of Mexico. 

206. State Militia. The State Convention, which held its 
third session in October, 1861, had also passed a Military Bill, 
not greatly unlike the ''Military Bill" passed by the General 
Assembly in May, which had been urged by Lyon and the 
Convention as one cause for attacking Camp Jackson. This 
bill provided for the organization of the supporters of the 



EVENTS IN IS 62. 



185 




Convention and the Union cause throughout the State, under 
the name of the ''Missouri State 
Militia." Companies of these 
were enlisted in nearly every 
county, and among the promi- 
nent officers thereof, who were 
tlien and have since been also 
prominent citizens of the State, 
were Colonel John F. Philips 
of Pettis, Colonel T. T. Crit- 
tenden of Johnson, Major A. 
W. Mullins of Linn, Colonel 
John F. Williams of Macon, 
and General Odin Guitar of 
Boone. 

207. Missourians in Opposing Companies. Early in April 
General Halleck set out for Corinth, Mississippi, and left 
General Schofield in command in Missouri. Governor Gamble 
appointed him Brigadier-General of Missouri State Militia, with 
power to call as much of it into active service as might be 
required to put down all marauders. Confederate companies for 
opposing these were also organized, and as a result most of 
the battles and skirmishes thereafter took place between these 
opposing companies of Missouri citizens. A few of the most 
important will be noticed. 

208. Porter, Poindexter and Guitar. Colonel Jo. C. Porter 
led a band of marauding secessionists in the northeastern part 
of the State. They were first attacked by Colonel H. S. Lipscomb, 



JOHN F. PHILIPS. 



186 



HISTORY OF MISSOURI. 



with 450 State ^lilitia in Schuyler county, early in July, 1862. 
Driven out of this county they passed rapidly into Scotland, 
Marion and Warren counties, and on July 22d suddenly fell 
upon Major H. C. Caldwell (now United States Circuit Judge 
of the district of which Missouri is a part) at Florida, in Monroe 
county. Porter then turned south, and was met at Brown's 
Spring in Callaway county on July 27th by Colonel Guitar with 
about 400 State militia and Major Caldwell with a part of the 
third Iowa. The fighting was desperate, many were killed and 
wounded on each side, and Porter was defeated. Porter now 

retreated rapidly to the north 
and near Kirksville was joined 
by J. A. Poindexter ; and their 
combined forces of over 1,500 
men made a stand in this town. 
They were attacked August 6th, 
by General John H. McNeil, aided 
by ''Merrill's Horse," and were 
terribly defeated, sustaining a 
loss of over 200 killed, wounded 
or captured. Among the pris- 
oners were seventeen men who 
were charged with having taken 
up arms after being released 
upon their oath to bear allegi- 
ance to the Union. These were condemned to death and shot. 
The remnant of Porter's force retreated southward and was met 
at Compton's Ferry, on Grand river in Carroll county, by Colonel 




ODIN GUITAR. 



EVENTS IN 1862. 187 

Guitar, who, by attacking him while crossing the river, caused 
great confusion among his men and completely broke up his 
band. Guitar also encountered Poindexter on Yellow creek in 
Chariton county and routed him completely. For these gallant 
achievements Governor Gamble promoted Guitar to the rank 
of Brigadier-General of Enrolled Missouri Militia. 

209. McNeil at Palmyra. Ahoni the time of his retreat and 
raid southward through Marion county three of Porter's men 
had captured Andrew Allsman, who had formerly been a Union 
soldier, but, being too old to endure the active duties of the 
service, had returned home, and, being well acquainted in the 
county, was frequently called upon for information as to the 
loyalty of certain citizens and to accompany scouting parties 
in search of suspected persons. He had also needlessly busied 
himself as a tale-bearer to officers of the State militia and other- 
wise made himself odious to the Confederate element. After 
his capture General John H. McNeil had published in the papers 
a notice to Porter that unless Allsman was returned within ten 
days, ten captured men, who he alleged had belonged to 
Porter's band and had violated their paroles, when in fact some 
of them had never been in arms, should be put to death. It 
was not then known whether Allsman had been killed or not, 
but as he never returned there can now be no doubt of it. At the 
end of the ten days the ten men, who were not responsible 
for the arrest or absence of Allsman, were taken from the 
Palmyra prison, put into wagons, each one seated on his coffin, 
and driven a half mile east of town. Then the coffins were 
removed and placed in a row a few feet apart, each of the men 



188 HISTOR Y OF MISSO URL 

was made to kneel beside his coffin, and then thirty soldiers 
of the second Missouri State Militia were commanded to fire, 
and this terrible crime against humanity stood, and still stands, 
as a dark spot in American History. 

210. Disfranchisement and Soldiers at the Polls. The Con- 
vention elected on the 18th of February, 1861, had in June, 
1862, passed a law that no person should vote who had been 
found in arms against the government of the United States or 
the provisional government of Missouri since December 17th, 
1861, or ''who had directly or indirectly given aid, comfort, or 
countenance to the enemies or opposers thereof." The resolu- 
tion was first introduced by Ex-Governor R. M. Stewart. It 
disqualified many men who had before this been voters. As to 
those who had actually taken up arms this measure worked no 
hardship while the war lasted, for they showed no desire to 
vote anyhow. But it disfranchised many persons whose only 
crime was that they were relatives or friends to those who had 
taken up arms. At the election held in the following November, 
the soldiers were at the polls with their guns. They were there 
to prevent anybody from voting who were disqualified by the 
act of the Convention. Soldiers at the polls are always objection- 
able to a people accustomed to governing themselves ; but in this 
case the objection was great, because they were there to aid in 
enforcing a law which prescribed a punishment for an offense 
which had been committed before the act was passed, and which 
disqualified almost as many more men as had ever taken up arms. 
But, at the election in 1863, the soldiers were required to vote in 
their camps, and this proved more satisfactory to the people. 



E VENTS IN 1 8 62 . 189 

211. Emancipation Efforts. None but Union men voted in 
1862 ; hence none but Union men were elected. The only 
question which divided the voters was emancipation of slaves : 
whether they should be freed at once, or after ten or twelve 
years, or with or without pay to their owners, or whether they 
should be freed at all. County officers, members of Congress 
and members of the Legislature were elected. The emancipa- 
tionists were successful. They had a large majority in the 
House of Representatives of the Legislature, which met on the 
last Monday of December, but not two-thirds of both houses. 
They could not, therefore, pass an emancipation act. The State 
Constitution stood in their way. It forbade the Legislature 
to free slaves except by paying full value for them before freed. 
Such payment could not well be made by a State alread}^ heavy 
in debt from the war. Emancipation could come through the 
Legislature, then, only by an amendment to the Constitution. 
This could be made only by two-thirds of all the members of 
each house in two successive Legislatures. This number of one 
Legislature were required to first vote for the amendment. 
Then it had to be published in all the papers in the State a year 
before a general election. If the next Legislature after such an 
election by two-thirds of each house should vote for the amend- 
ment, it became a part of the Constitution. This was too slow 
a process for the emancipationists. They had only a majority in 
the present Legislature. It was not known that they would have 
that in the next one. Emancipation would be delayed four 
years, perhaps longer. The Convention must be appealed to. 
It was thought it had unlimited power. If not, perhaps it 



190 HISTOR Y OF MISSO URL 

would assume it. Governor Gamble was requested to call 
another session of the Convention. He did. It met in June, 
1863. 



CHAPTER XVIII, 



1863 AXD IS 64. 



212. The last Sessio7i of the Convention was held in June, 1863. 
An '^ ordinance" was passed declaring all slaves free after July 
4th, 1870, but all those over 40 years old should remain under 
the control of, and be subject to, their owners for the rest of their 
lives ; those under 12 years, until they were 23 years old ; and 
those of all other ages until the 4th of July, 1876 ; but none were 
to hg sold after July 4th, 1870. The Convention also declared 
that all parts of the State Constitution in conflict with this 
ordinance were void and '^lereby abrogated." It adjourned sine 
die July 1st, 1863. It will be seen hereafter that this ordinance 
was supplanted by another law before the time arrived for its 
enforcement. 

213. Neiv Senators. Trusten Polk and Waldo P. Johnson had 
been expelled from the United States Senate in 1862, because of 
their secession sentiments and aid to the secession movements. 
Robert Wilson of Andrew, and John B. Henderson of Pike, 
were appointed to the vacancies b}^ Lieutenant-Governor Hall, in 
the absence of Governor Gamble. In January, 1863, the 
General Assembly elected Mr. Henderson to fill out the unex- 



1863 AND 1864. 191 

pired term of Polk, and then elected him to serve six years till 
March 4th, 1869, but elected none to fill out Mr. Johnson's 
term, which would terminate March 4th, 1867, but in the 
following November it elected B. Gratz Brown for a term 
expiring March 4th, 1867. 

214. The Sacking of Lawrence. That a rank growth of gene- 
ral freebooting should have sprung up along the border in both 
Missouri and Kansas was to be expected from the lawless state 
of affairs which has been recounted under the head of ''Kansas 
Troubles." The war opened a wider field for spoliation. Early 
in the struggle appeared a band of ''jayhawkers," known as ''red- 
legs," because they wore red morocco leggings. The band was 
originally devoted to horse stealing, but became flexible enough 
to include rascals of every kind. At intervals the band would 
dash into Missouri, seize horses and cattle, commit other and 
worse outrages, then return with their booty to Lawrence and 
sell it at public auction. They did not hesitate to shoot people 
who objected to their acts or inquired into their doings. Mr. 
Spring, an honorable Kansas historian, says: "The gang con- 
tained men of the most desperate and hardened character, and 
a full recital of their deeds would sound like a biography of 
devils." The people of Lawrence could not drive them out or put 
a stop to their maraudings, and so their course of robbery, rapine 
and murder went on. The depredations of these red-legs, the 
campaign of Lane into Missouri some time before, and the 
troubles dating back to 1854, led to the awful destruction of 
Lawrence on August 21st, 1863. Quantrill, who led the raid, 
once lived in Lawrence — "a dull, sullen, uninteresting knave" — 



192 HISTORY OF MISSOURI. 

and, just as the war began, was driven from the town to Missouri 
for some misbehavior. He now returned at the head of a band 
of Missouri bushrangers. They rode quietly into Kansas, 
traveled forty miles the night before the massacre and reached 
Ijawrence at daybreak, 175 strong. Armed with revolvers, they 
were commanded to ''kill every man and burn every house." 
With a wild cry like that of savage Indians, they dashed through 
the sleeping and defenseless town, killing men indiscriminately, 
but especially butchering all red-legs to be found. In the 
meantime they shouted — ''We are here for revenge, and we have 
got it !" Stores, banks, hotels and dwellings they rifled and then 
set them on fire, and of the dead 183 were counted; and from 
this sickening scene — the town in flames, the principal streets 
lined with corpses, many of them charred and blackened — the 
guerrillas galloped away, easily evading Major (lately Senator) 
Plumb with 250 Union troops, whom they passed on the way and 
escaped. "Order No. 11" was four days later issued for the 
purpose of taking reprisals for this raid on Lawrence, and 
making it impossible for such men to live in border counties. 

215. Order No. 11. On August 25th, 1863, General Thomas 
Ewing, of the Eleventh Kansas Infantry Volunteers, issued from 
his headquarters at Kansas City an order which has become 
famous as "Order No. 11," and which shows the biting misery 
the people then had to endure on account of the fratricidal war 
which was being carried on, not by great generals and brave 
soldiers in open and honorable battle, but by roving bands 
of guerrillas of both armies, whose purpose was to murder, rob 
and despoil, almost as much as to maintain the authority of the 



1S6S Ayn 1864. 193 

Union or establish the authority of the Confederacy. Order 
No. 11 commanded all persons then living in the counties of 
Cass, Jackson and Bates, except those living in the principal 
towns, to remove from their places of abode within fifteen days. 
All persons who could show to the nearest military commander 
that they were loyal citizens, were permitted to move to the 
military stations or to Kansas. All other persons were to move 
entirely out of these counties. Their grain and hay were to be 
taken to the nearest military station, where the owners were 
granted certificates showing their value, and all produce not so 
delivered was to be destroyed. The military commanders were 
directed to see this order promptly obeyed, and they did so with 
dire earnestness. The whole district soon presented a scene of 
desolation rarely equaled. Cass was almost wholly depopulated. 
Of its 10,000 inhabitants only about 600 remained in the county, 
and these were gathered at the military stations of Harrisonville 
and Pleasant Hill. There was also an immense destruction of 
property. Immediately after the close of the war it was esti- 
mated that at least one-third of the houses had been burned 
and one-half of the farms laid waste. In Bates results were still 
worse. Within fifteen days nearly every inhabitant had crossed 
its border, and for three years its history was a blank. During 
these years the prairie fires swept over the land, adding to 
the desolation, and when, in 1866, the older inhabitants 
returned, not a vestige of their old homes was left save the 
blackened chimneys rising above the rank weeds. From these 
reasons these counties were, for a score of years, known as ''The 
Burnt District." A member of General Ewing's staff was. 



194 HISTORY OF MISSOURI. 

Colonel George C. Bingham, who opposed the issuing of this 
order, and begged Ewing not to issue it. When Ewing per- 
sisted, he became defiant and told him if he did so he would 
make him 'infamous." Being one of the finest artists in the 
State, after the war closed he painted ''Order No. 11." The 
painting became very celebrated, was copied, and can to this day 
be found in some Missouri homes. But as soil cannot be 
destro^^ed, after the unhappy conflict had closed, many old 
soldiers from either army settled in these counties, and to-day 
they are among the most prosperous in the State. 

216. Radicals and Conservatives. The campaign in the fall 
of 1863 excited much interest. Those who approved of the 
Convention's ordinance emancipating slaves, wdio supported the 
administration of Governor Gamble and the actions of the Con- 
vention, and opposed Order No. 11, and other kindred acts, were 
called Conservatives. Those who favored the freeing of the slaves 
at once, who wanted all the management of the war, together with 
the State and Enrolled Militia, turned over to the national 
Government, who opposed the administration of Governor 
Gamble, and who favored more rigid election laws, were called 
Radicals. Much interest was taken in this campaign. The 
Conservatives were successful, electing their three judges of the 
Supreme Court by a majority of only a few hundred out of a 
total vote of 93,777. 

217. Price's Raid. In January, 1864, General Rosecrans 
had succeeded to the command of the Western Department. The 
first formidable force he was called upon to resist, was General 
Price, who, since the battle of Pea Ridge had been in Arkansas 



1863 AND 1864. 195 

and the South. Early in September he started upon a bold 
dash through the State, which has been known as ''Price's 
Raid." He entered southeastern Missouri with a large force. 
At Pilot Knob he met General H. S. Ewing with 1,200 men, 
who gallantly held his position for a time, then spiked his guns, 
blew up his magazine, and retreated to Rolla to join his forces 
with General McNeil's. His loss had been about ten men, 
while Price's had been several times that number. The Union 
forces from every part of the State were now concentrated at 
Jefferson City to defend the capital, and the whole was in 
command of General Brown, ably re-enforced by General Clinton 
B. Fisk from north of the river, and General McNeil from 
Rolla. Price moved rapidly in that direction, burning the 
bridges behind him so as to impede pursuit. On October 5th 
he met the outposts of the Union army at the Osage river, under 
command of Major A. W. Mullins and Colonel John F. Philips. 
They gradually fell back with slight skirmishing as he ap- 
proached. Price soon found the capital well intrenched, and 
a large army prepared to resist any attack. He, therefore, moved 
onward toward Boonville and Lexington, hotly pursued by 
General A. J. Smith. Soon a very heavy Union force, under 
command of General Pleasonton was in pursuit of Price, whose 
army was now being rapidly increased by recruits. In Saline 
county he sent General Jo. Shelby and General John B. Clark, 
Jr., to attack Glasgow, on the opposite side of the river in 
Howard county, which they easily captured. At Little Blue 
creek in Jackson county. Price encountered General Curtis, and 
a sharp contest for a few hours was waged, when Curtis fell 



196 HISTORY OF MISSOURI. 

back. But on the 20th his forces were defeated at Independence 
by Pleasonton. Price had been disappointed in the small 
number of recruits he had gathered. The number had not been 
over six thousand and the raid had accomplished nothing, and 
so he hastily retreated to Arkansas, his troops on the way 
undergoing the greatest hardships for lack of food and water. 
He entered the State no more till the war was ended. During 
the raid. Price had marched 1,434 miles, and fought forty-three 
battles and skirmishes. 

218. The Centmlia Massacre. On September 27th, 1864, a 
band of over 200 murderous outlaws, under the command of the 
notorious guerrilla chief. Bill Anderson, made a dash upon 
Centralia, a small town upon the Wabash railroad in the 
northern part of Boone county. They first employed themselves 
in robbing the stores of their goods and private citizens of their 
money, and when the train arrived from St. Louis they robbed 
the passengers of their money and jewelry. On board the train 
were twenty-three Federal soldiers. These surrendered, but were 
taken to the edge of the town and shot, while begging for their 
lives. The number has been reported by Anderson's men as 27. 
Such was what is known as the "Centralia Massacre." Then they 
returned, set fire to the train, and set it in motion to run at its 
will, and the whole was burned. Later in the same day the 
guerrillas were attacked by Major Johnson, who was in the 
neighborhood, with 150 militia. The lines of battle were drawn 
up just at the edge of town. Anderson's followers dashed with 
tremendous ferocity upon Johnson's force, and sixty-eight of 
them were killed at the first fire, so accurate was the marksman- 



1863 AND 1864. 197 

ship of the guerrillas. Johnson's men fled in every direction, 
but were overtaken, and seventy-three of them were killed and 
robbed. The guerrillas had only two killed. Anderson, after 
this massacre, began burning the towns and bridges and depots 
along the railroad, and a month later was met in Ray county 
by Colonel S. P. Cox, with a company of Enrolled Militia from 
Caldwell and Daviess counties, and killed. 

219. Other Engagements. It would be a mistake to suppose 
because Price was outside the State during the greater part of 
the war, that therefore there was peace and order. The important 
battles have been mentioned, but this was not all the war nor 
the greater part of it. According to the official records, between 
the time of the capture of the Government arsenal at Liberty, 
on April 20th, 1861, and the 20th of November, 1862— a period 
of nineteen months — over three hundred battles and skirmishes 
had been fought within the State. During the next two years 
it is estimated there were 150 more, but they were relatively 
more destructive of life. So here is a total of 450 battles and 
skirmishes for the entire war, an average of four for every 
county in the State. North of the river these engagements were 
mostly between the State or Enrolled Militia, and regularly 
enlisted Confederates who were attempting to make their way 
south to join the regular army. It was to prevent them in this 
attempt that these skirmishes were fought. But, nevertheless, 
many of them "went south," as it was then described, and 
fought on till peace was established. Most of them went after 
the battle of Pea Ridge, from which time the State was practic'ally 
under the control of the Union authorities, and no Confederate 



198 HISTOR Y OF MISSO URL 

army of any consequence was in the State till the time of Price's 
raid, nearly two years and a half afterwards. There must have 
been some cause for their going. Two reasons are given. 

220. One ivas found in the Order of Governor Gamble on July 
22nd, 1862, enrolling the entire fighting population of the 
State, and authorizing General Schofield to call into active 
service such a portion of it as he might deem necessary to put 
down all marauders and preserve the peace. This order was 
generally regarded as preliminary to a draft. The Southern 
sympathizers looked upon it as an attempt to force them into the 
Union army and to make them fight against their Southern 
friends and kindred, whether they wished to or not. And they 
were, therefore, determined that if they must fight at all it would 
be for the South. Some of Price's men who had returned 
home after he had published his farewell address to the State 
Guard and joined the Confederacy, had led guerrilla outbreaks 
and done other unlawful acts, such as burning railroads, but 
most of them, by far, took an oath not to bear arms against the 
United States or the provisional government of Missouri, and 
had given a bond to faithfully keep this oath, which they were 
trying to do. But this order of Governor Gamble's they regarded 
as breaking the contract, w^iich the oath implied, that they 
were not to fight any more, and so they now 'Svent south" 
again. 

221. The Second Reason. But a larger number of men were 
induced to join the Confederacy because of the way they were 
treated by the Union officers and soldiers. Unoffending 
citizens, notably those who were suspected of disloyalty, were 



1863 AND 1864. 199 

constantly interfered with. Some military officials, especially 
those from other States, 'instead of discharging the duties of their 
office in such a way as to give as little offense as possible, acted 
as if it were the true policy to exasperate the people among 
whom they were stationed and drive them into the rebel army, 
or worse still, into some wild and predatory band of guerrillas." 
They seemed to forget that there was such a thing as military 
law, and frequently conducted themselves in a manner which 
would not have been excusable even in an enemy's country. 
But it is fair to add that these insults and offenses to private 
citizens often resulted from ignorance and excess of zeal rather 
than from a spirit of wantonness and a desire for personal gain. 
Their ignorance consisted in the fact that, by some curious 
process, they appeared to have satisfied themselves that Missouri 
was disloyal, which was never the case, especially when the 
people were left in peace to decide for themselves for or against 
the Union. 

222. The Number of Soldiers. But the number of these men 
that ''went south" was not as large by far as is usually 
supposed. The entire number that enlisted during the last 
three years of the war was less than 20,000. Add to these the 
10,000 who had joined Price east of the Mississippi, and 10,000 
for those who either returned home after the battle of Pea Ridge 
or had prior to that time served as State troops, and the 
number is swelled to the grand total of 40,000 men, which will 
include all the soldiers that Missouri furnished to Jackson and 
the Confederate service. But the number of Union enlistments 
reached the magnificent array of 109,111 men, which was 33,000 



200 HISTOR Y OF MISSO URL 

more than the number furnished by Iowa, 89,000 more than by 
Kansas, and three-fourths as many as by Massachusetts, and is 
an undeniable answer to all assertions that Missouri was ever 
disloyal to the Union. Of these 109,111, eight thousand were 
negroes, who had formerly been slaves. The Provisional 
Government had been so successful in managing the affairs of 
the State, that they established order over a great part of it and 
answered every call made by the national authorities upon them 
for men without a draft and with a small expenditure of money. 
The number of Union soldiers was forty-seven per cent of the 
entire number of men of military age, and the number furnished 
both armies w^as sixty-four per cent of those subject to military 
duty. These figures become more instructive when it is remem- 
bered that in 1860 Mr. Lincoln obtained only ten per cent of 
the State's vote. 

223. Governor Gamble having died on January 31st, 1864, 
aged sixty-six, Lieutenant-Governor Willard P. Hall became 
Governor. Hamilton R. Gamble was born in Virginia, in 1798, 
and w^as of Irish descent. He w^as educated at Hampden-Sidney 
College. Before he was of age he was admitted to the bar in 
three States. In 1818 he moved to Franklin, Howard county, 
and was shortly afterward appointed prosecuting attorney. At 
that time the territory of Howard embraced nearly one-third of 
the present State. In 1824, Governor Bates appointed him 
Secretary of State, which required him to move to St. Charles, 
the then capital. Soon afterward, on the death of Bates, he 
settled in St. Louis, and made that his home till his deatli. 
After he took up his home there he soon established a reputation 



IS 63 AXD IS 64. 



201 



as a great lawyer, and from that time on was connected with 

almost every important suit pending in the St. Louis courts 

followed them to the Supreme Court of the United States, argued 







HAMILTON R. GAMBLE. 



them in person and obtained a high reputation as a jurist. 
In 1846 he was a member of the Legislature. In 1852 he 
became Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, and served for 



202 HISTOR Y OF MISSO VRL 

three years, being at the time a Whig. When the important 
question of secession was submitted to the people, he earnestly 
and ably espoused the cause of the Union, and was elected 
without opposition to the Convention which was to decide 
Missouri's course during the war, and was made chairman of 
the committee on Federal relations, and wrote the report 
against secession which was adopted. When Claiborne Jackson 
was deposed as Governor, Mr. Gamble was elected to the office 
of Provisional Governor by the Convention. He assumed the 
duties of Governor August 1st, 1861, and exercised them till 
his death. He was chosen for only one year, but by a vote of 
the Convention, in June, 1862, he was to continue in office till 
after the election in November, 1864. His powers as Governor 
were great, but he exercised them with a steadfast purpose to 
restore peace. 

224. Willard P. Hall was born at Harper's Ferry, Virginia, 
in 1820, and was of New England stock. He graduated at Yale 
College at the age of nineteen, at twenty-one he was admitted 
to the bar at Huntsville, Missouri, settled in St. Joseph in 
1842, and gave such evidence of his ability that the next year 
Governor Reynolds appointed him Circuit Attorney. In 1844 
he was Presidential elector on the Democratic ticket and carried 
the vote of his State, which had been cast for James K. Polk, 
to Washington. The next year he joined Doniphan's regiment 
for service in the Mexican War. General Kearney detailed him 
to draft a code of laws for New Mexico, which he did, and so 
successfully that it has remained the law of that Territory to 
this day. In 1847 he went to Congress, and was a member 



THE ADMINISTRATION OF GOVERNOR FLETCHER. 



203 



of that body for six years. He then resumed the practice of 
law and the management of his 
large farm near St. Joseph, 
and gained the reputation of 
being one of Missouri's greatest 
lawyers. He was elected to the 
Convention in 1861 and became 
one of its most prominent 
members against secession. 
When Thomas C. Reynolds was 
deposed as Lieutenant-Governor, 
he was elected by the Convention 
in his stead, and when Mr. 
Gamble died he became Gov- 
ernor, and served as such about 
one year. 




WILLARD P. HALL. 



CHAPTER XIX. 



THE ADMINISTRATION OF GOVERNOR FLETCHER. 



225. Thomas C. Fletcher became Governor January 2d, 
1865, and served till 1869. He was the first Republican, the 
first native-born, and the youngest Governor of Missouri up 
to that time. He received 71,531 votes, and his Democratic 
opponent, Thomas L. Price, received 30,406. He was born 
in Jefferson county, January 22d, 1827, and in early life received 



204 



HISTORY OF MISSOURI. 



a very meagre education. This defect he remedied by hard and 
persistent study while serving as deputy clerk of the courts of 
his county. Afterwards he was elected clerk of these courts, 

and in 1856 was admitted to the 
bar. In 1860 he advocated the elec- 
tion of Mr. Lincoln, and soon after- 
wards warmly indorsed the course 
of Lyon and Blair. He recruited the 
31st Missouri regiment of infantry 
and was made its colonel ; was 
wounded and captured, and in 
1864 was nominated for Governor 
while serving as brigadier-general 
under Sherman, in Georgia. He 
opposed the wholesale disfran- 
chisement of the Drake Constitu- 
tion and did what he could to have it repealed ; but while it 
remained the law he enforced it with firmness and vigor. He has 
never held office since being Governor. 

226. The Constitution of 1865. The General Assembly had 
submitted to the people, at the election in 1864, a proposition for 
a Convention to amend the Constitution. It was voted to have 
the Convention by a majority of 29,000, and QQ delegates were 
elected thereto. It met in the Mercantile Library Hall, in St. 
Louis, in January 1865, and elected Arnold Kreckel president 
and Charles Drake vice-president. It in time adopted a con- 
stitution which never had a parallel in America for its rigid* 
severity. It became known in history as the ''Drake Consti- 




THOS. C. FLETCHER. 



THE ADMINISTRATION OF GOVERNOR FLETCHER. 205 

tution," because Charles D. Drake was the leading spirit in the 
Convention, and from this fact and its extreme severity, has 
been called the ''Draconian Code," in comparison to the laws of 
Draco of Greece, which affixed the penalty of death alike to 
petty thefts and murder, Draco justifying them by saying small 
offenses deserved death, and he knew no greater punishment for 
great ones. 

227. Manumission Day. The Convention, on January 11th, 
1865, passed an ordinance which declared that "hereafter in this 
State there shall neither be slavery nor involuntary servitude, 
except in punishment of crime whereof the party shall have 
been duly convicted, and all persons held to service or labor as 
slaves are hereby declared free." This ordinance received an 
overwhelming majority on final passage, 60 delegates voting 
for it and only 4 against it. The Convention refused to submit 
this ordinance to the people by a vote of 44 to 4, and Governor 
Fletcher next day issued his proclamation that "henceforth and 
forever no person shall be subject to any abridgement of liberty, 
except such as the law shall prescribe for the common good, 
or know any master but God." An effort was also made in the 
Convention to "pay loyal owners for their slaves," but this, too, 
failed by a vote of 44 to 4, and hence the vexed question of 
slavery was settled now, at last in all its aspects, forever. This 
ordinance was passed January 11th, 1865, and for that reason 
this day has since been known as "Manumission Day." But 
for a number of years there had practically been no slavery 
in Missouri, the slave-owners making little or no efforts to 
restrain their slaves. There had been 114,931 of them in I860-, 



206 



HISTORY OF MISSOURI. 



and by this time many thousands had either gone off to other 
States or enlisted in the army. 

228. The Test Oath. Th-e Convention had done a good 
work in passing the ''Manumission Act." Had it stopped at 
this, no one would have thought of calling its declarations the 
"Draconian Code." But it went further and prescribed a ''test 
oath," which prevented at least one-third of the people from 
voting till 1872^ and almost as many more would have been 
disfranchised had they sworn strictly to the truth when they 
came to take that oath. This test oath declared that no person 
should vote or hold any kind of office, who had "ever" engaged 

in hostilities, or given aid, com- 
fort, countenance or support to 
persons engaged in hostilities, 
against the Government of the 
United States ; or had given 
mone}^, goods, letters, or infor- 
mation to its enemies, or by act 
or word manifested his adherence 
to the cause of such enemies, or 
his sympathy with those engaged 
in carrying on rebellion; or had 
ever been in anywise connected 
with any society unfriendly to 
such Government; or had ever 
knowingly harbored, aided or countenanced any person engaged 
in guerrilla warfare; or had ever done any act to prevent being 
enrolled into the military service of the Union or the State. 




CHARLES D. DRAKE. 



THE ADMINISTRATION OF GOVEJ^NOR FLETCHER. 207 

Any person who had done any of these things, or any other 
thing like them, could not vote, teach in any public or private 
school, practice law, preach the Gospel, ''or be competent as 
a minister of any religious denomination, to preach, teach, or 
solemnize marriage, unless such person shall have first taken 
said oath." It did not only require allegiance and loyalty to 
the Union from that time on, which would have been a just 
and wise provision, but it applied to all men who had ever 
borne arms against the United States, or had sympathized at 
any time with those who did take up arms, or had done them 
acts of common kindness, or had refused to bear arms for the 
national Government. All. disloyal citizens attempting to teach 
or preach without taking this oath were to be fined not less than 
five hundred dollars, or committed to prison not less than six 
months, or both; and if they falsely took it, they were to be tried 
for perjury and punished with imprisonment in the penitentiary. 
229. A Retrospective Law. An effort was made in the Conven- 
tion to change the words ''has ever" (been guilty of the things 
recited as offenses in the oath) to "who has since December 
17th, 1861," been guilty of them. This was done for a very just 
reason. On August 3d, 1861, Governor Gamble issued a 
proclamation in which he promised that all citizens in arms who 
should return to their homes, and become peaceable and loyal, 
should not be molested. This proclamation was indorsed by 
President Lincoln, who promised to such persons the protection 
of the national Government. The Convention of 1861 had, in 
October of that year, promised that all persons who would obey 
this proclamation and take the oath of allegiance to the Govern- 



208 HISTORY OF MISSOURI. 

ment before December 17th, 1861, should not be punished ''for 
offenses previously committed." Many citizens in the State had 
thereupon taken this ''oath." Others had returned from Jack- 
son's support and become loyal citizens. It was but just that 
good faith should be kept with these men, and that the "test 
oath" should not be made to apply to them. But the Convention 
thought otherwise. The iron-clad oath was made to apply alike 
to all time, past and future. 

230. Ousting the Officers. The Convention, on March 17th, 
1865, passed an ordinance vacating the offices of the judges of 
the Supreme Court, of all the circuit courts and all the county 
offices. The ordinance was to take effect May 1st, and was never 
submitted to the people. It gave the Governor the power to 
fill all these offices by appointment. Many of the terms of the 
officers, all of whom had been elected by the people, had not 
expired, notably those of the Supreme Judges. They had been 
elected for a term of six years, and had served not more than 
fifteen months. The reason assigned for this wholesale removal 
was that only loyal men should be in office. This was delusive, 
for Governor Hall in his last message on the 29th of December 
previous, had announced that "all of the civil offices of the 
State are filled with men of avowed loyalty." The real reason 
was to get rid of the Supreme Court judges. But there were 
great obstacles in the way of their removal. It was not yet sure 
that the people would adopt the new Constitution. To submit 
the question of removal to them along with the Constitution 
might result in the defeat of both ; the people would see no use 
in turning out officers elected only a short time before. By the 



THE ADMINISTRATION OF GOVERNOR FLETCHER. 209 

old Constitution, which was the supreme law until replaced by a 
new one, they could be removed only by the Legislature, which 
would not meet till January. By that time the Supreme Court 
might set aside the test oath and other portions of the 
Constitution. That method was too slow. The power of removal 
had not been granted to the Convention when the people elected 
their delegates. It could be assumed only in violation of the old 
Constitution, which had been in effect since 1820. It was 
assumed, and with one fell sweep the offices of all" judges and all 
county offices were vacated. 

231. Defeat Forestalled. The Convention agreed to submit 
their Constitution to the people for indorsement. But to make 
sure that it would not be rejected, they also passed an ' 'ordi- 
nance" declaring that no one should vote for or against it who 
would not first take the test oath. In order to be sure that none 
took the oath falsely, a system of registration of voters was 
provided for. The registering officer was given the power to 
pass upon the qualifications of all persons to vote, and if he 
deemed any of them could not truthfully take this oath, he 
refused to enter their names upon the rolls. Yet, after these 
extreme precautions, the Constitution was adopted by the people 
by a majority of only about 1,800 out of a total vote of 85,000, 
which was 55,000 less votes than were cast for and against 
having the convention the previous November. The election 
was held June 6th, 1865. 

232. Enforcing the Ousting Ordinance. The American people 
have always been quick to resent ^ny interference by a legisla- 
tive body with the judiciary, especially when it partakes of 



210 HISTOR Y OF MISSO URL 

partisan politics. This ''ousting ordinance" was no exception 
to the rule. It gave great offense to a large number of persons, 
and assisted in driving them to the side of the reactionary 
current of feeling then rapidly setting in. The enforcement of 
the law against the Supreme Judges was resisted by two of the 
judges, W. V. N. Bay and J. D. S. Dryden. Judge Bates 
had resigned. Soon after the ordinance became a law Gover- 
nor Fletcher appointed David Wagner, Nathaniel Holmes and 
W. L. Lovelace Supreme Judges. Judges Bay and Dryden 
declared the law without proper authority and refused to vacate. 
Governor Fletcher, therefore, directed the police of St. Louis to 
arrest them and forcibly eject them from the court. This was 
done, and they were taken before a criminal court of the city for 
disturbing the peace, and never afterwards attempted to resume 
their offices. 

233. The Results of the Draconian Code. A most violent 
proscription followed the enforcement of this ''test oath." "Tens 
of thousands of old and honored citizens, men of education and 
influence, who had taken no part in the war, were denied the 
right to vote, and that, too, on the adoption of an organic law 
which was to govern them and their children after them." But, 
hard as this was, it is not to be compared to the further penalty 
of the law which forbade them to preach, teach, practice law or 
follow other simple employments. Their only remaining rights 
seemed to be, as they were plainly told, "to pay taxes, work the 
roads and hold their peace." In St. Louis, Francis Preston 
Blair — whose patriotism is a nation's pride, and who had done 
more than any other man to keep Missouri in the Union — 



THE ADMINISTRATION OF GOVERNOR FLETCHER. 211 

was denied the privilege of voting because he refused to take the 
test oath. He filed an oath that he had been loyal ever since 
the adoption of the Constitution, and he would full and true 
allegiance bear to the State and national Governments thereafter ; 
but claimed the judges of election had no right to inquire 
as to his conduct prior to the' time the Constitution was adopted. 
He brought suit in the Supreme Court to compel the election 
officers to receive his ballot. It decided against him. 

The Missouri Baptists at their annual State meeting, fifty 
delegates being present, agreed to decline to take the oath, 
even if they had to give up preaching to do so. They declared it 
interfered with religious liberty, with freedom of the worship 
of God and was contrary to the federal Constitution. The Catholic 
archbishop informed the clergy they could not take the oath 
without a surrender of religious liberty. Some men, who 
believed the dictates of conscience more binding upon them 
than this '^code," undertook to preach the Gospel anyhow. For 
doing so they were indicted as criminals. Fourteen ministers 
were indicted at Palmyra at a single session of the circuit court. 
At other places men were indicted 104 times a year for no 
greater crime than preaching the glad message of salvation ; a 
much greater number were indicted a less number of times ; 
a few were consigned to the common jail. These were not bad 
and quarrelsome men, but as good, able and peaceable as could 
be found in the State, and clergymen of both Protestant and 
Catholic churches. In Cape Girardeau county three Sisters of 
Charity were dragged into court and tried for teaching without 
having taken this iron-clad oath, but the jury refused to convict 



212 . HISTORY OF MISSOURI. 

them. At Louisiana, the Rev. J. A. Cummings, a priest in 
the Catholic church, was convicted in the circuit court. His 
crime was teaching and preaching without having taken the 
oath referred to. There was no evidence that Mr. Cummings 
had been guilty of any act of disloyalty, or that he had at any 
time a disloyal thought or sympathy. He was not so charged. 
He was charged only with preaching and teaching without 
having taken an oath, which had he taken falsely, however 
loyal he was then and thereafter, would have made him liable to 
imprisonment in the penitentiary. He was convicted, sentenced 
to pay a fine of five hundred dollars and to be committed to jail 
till the fine and costs were paid. He appealed his case to the 
Supreme Court of the State. It decided against him. Then 
he appealed to the Supreme Court of the United States, and it set 
the test oath aside as contrary to the nation's Constitution. 
That court declared it an ex post facto law. It said no State was 
permitted to enact a law which punished men for offenses com- 
m.itted before the law was passed. After that decision, indict- 
ments ceased for preaching the Gospel and practicing law and 
pursuing other employments. These indictments had in but few 
cases been followed by fine and imprisonment. Final action had 
been taken in but very few of them, the courts in most cases 
delaying trial in the matter till the national Supreme Court should 
decide the Cummings case. When that decision was made in 
favor of the preachers, teachers and lawyers, the indictments 
were never again called up in court, and never again heard of. 

234. Registration Act. The Supreme . Court of the United 
States had, by its decision in the case of J. A. Cummings and 



THE ADMINISTRATION OF GOVERNOR FLETCHER. 213 

in that of Francis P. Blair, set aside all that part of the test oath 
which disfranchised so many men. Since then some of the 
strongest Union men in the State had set themselves against it, 
including such prominent citizens as Francis P. Blair, John S. 
Phelps, B. Gratz Brown, Carl Schurz, Samuel P. Glover, John 
F. Philips, James 0. Broadhead and Willard P. Hall. The 
movement had gained great momentum, but still its opponents 
had a majority in the Legislature. At the session of 1868 
it was therefore determined to again make an attempt at 
general proscription. A very stringent registration law was 
passed. It gave the Governor power to appoint superintend- 
ents of registration in each senatorial district, who in turn 
appointed three registers in each county. These four officers 
were authorized to make a list of all the legal voters in the 
county. They were forbidden to enroll any person who 
would not* take an oath of loyalty, and besides were given 
the power to refuse to enroll any others than those they chose. 
In many counties they chose to refuse half the citizens. In 
some cases wealthy candidates for office influenced the registers 
to enroll their followers, but few others. No one was allowed 
to vote whose name was not enrolled by these registers. 
This law, perhaps, disfranchised more voters than the original 
''test oath." It was made a principal issue in the campaign 
of 1868, and the canvass was attended with bitterness and often 
violence. 

235. The Election of 1868. The Republican candidate for 
Governor was Joseph W. McClurg of Camden county. The 
Democratic candidate was John S. Phelps of Springfield. 



214 



HISTORY OF MISSOURI. 



McClurg's majority was 19,000, and the whole vote cast was 
145,000. E. 0. Stanard of St. Louis was elected Lieutenant- 
Governor. 



CHAPTER XX, 



MCCLUBG'S ADMINISTRATION. 



236. Joseph W. McClurg was born in St. Louis county, 
February 22d, 1818, and was educated at Oxford, Ohio. He 

taught school in Ohio and Louis- 
iana, and was deputy sheriff in 
St. Louis before he was twenty- 
one. Two years later he was 
licensed to practice law, but 
soon afterwards ■ engaged in 
merchandising in Camden 
county. When the war came 
on he took positive and enthusi- 
astic grounds for the Union. 
He entered Congress as 'a 
Republican in 1862 and served 
till January 1869, when he 
resigned to become Governor 
of Missouri. He was again a 
candidate in 1870, but was defeated. In his last message 
to the Legislature he recommended the passage of a law 




JOSEPH W. MCCLURG. 



MCCLUBG'S ADMINISTRATION. 215 

prohibiting the sale of intoxicants as a beverage — the only time 
such a recommendation was ever contained in a Governor's 
message. In 1889 he was appointed by President Harrison 
Register of the United States Land office at Springfield, Missouri. 

237o Negro Suffrage. The Legislature had in 1867 agreed by 
a large majority to submit to the people an amendment to the 
Constitution granting the negro the privilege of voting. The 
amendment was voted on at the election in November, 1868, and 
was defeated by nearly 19,000 majority. But on .January 7th, 
1870, the question again came before the Legislature in the 
XVth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States, 
which the Legislature adopted by about a two-thirds vote of both 
houses, thus giving the negro the privilege of voting. This was 
before the ballot had been restored to those who were disfran- 
chised by the Drake Constitution. 

238. Repeal of the Test Oath. The same Legislature, how- 
ever, agreed to submit to. the voters an amendment to the 
Constitution abolishing the test oath. This was voted on in 
November, 1870. A very warm and earnest campaign preceded 
the vote. The Republican party disagreed in regard to what 
should be done with the great number of disfranchised citizens. 
Many were in favor of postponing the giving of the ballot to 
these men. These were called ''Radical Republicans." But an 
equal number believed in entire removal of all political disabili- 
ties at once. They were called ''Liberal Republicans." The 
Republicans met in Convention, in Jefferson City in August, 
1870, and voted to adhere to the Radical Republican doctrine, by 
a vote of 349 to 342, and nominated Joseph W. McClurg the then 



216 HISTOR Y OF MISSO URL 

Governor, for re-election. The Liberal Republicans withdrew • 
from the Convention, adopted a platform for immediate re- 
enfranchisement, and nominated B. Gratz Brown for Governor. 
The Democrats declined to nominate State officers, but supported 
the Liberal Republican ticket. Mr. Brown was elected by 41,000 
majority, and the people voted to repeal the test oath, by a 
majority of 111,000, there being only about 16,000 votes against 
it. J. J. Gravelly was elected Lieutenant-Governor. The 
Liberal Republicans and Democrats had also obtained a majority 
in both houses of the Legislature, and they went to work at 
once to repeal all obnoxious laws, and restore to ever}^ man 
equality before the laws, and remove all disabilities from all. 
As a result, at the election in 1872 the vote was 112,276 greater 
than it was in 1870, an increase of sixty-seven per cent in two 
years. By this fact we can arrive at an estimate of the number 
disfranchised. Of this number — 112,276 — it is not proper to 
count the negro vote, because the XVth Amendment to the 
national Constitution, bestowing on negroes the right to vote, 
became a law of the nation prior to the election of 1870. It is 
possible, however, that twenty-five per cent of the increase, or 
28,000, were immigrants and young men now for the first time 
old enough to vote. This would leave 84,000 men who had been 
disfranchised by the sweeping proscription of the Drake Consti- 
tution — more than twice as many as ever took up arms as State 
Guards or Confederate troops. 

239. The restoration to citizenship was wise and just. What- 
soever good reason there might have been for denying to so 
many citizens the right to vote and follow their chosen employ- 



MCCLUBG'S ADMINISTRATION. 217 

meiit in 1865, it could not be urged that the conduct of these 
men had been such as to make it unsafe to trust them with full 
and equal citizenship within a few years after the war had closed. 
Their conduct was as peaceable and orderly as that of any class 
of men in the State. Not even did the preachers, teachers and 
lawyers, after the United States Supreme Court had restored to 
them the privilege of following their chosen pursuits, make harsh 
or disloyal assertions in public. Political subjects were rarely 
spoken of in the pulpit or school. The great mass of these men 
had quietly returned to their homes, controlled by a desire for 
peace and to submit in good faith to the authority of the Union. 
They had gone diligently to work at whatever employment was 
open to them, to regaining their lost fortunes, rebuilding their 
burnt houses, and re-establishing themselves in the land whose 
fruits they had enjoyed before the war. Nothing is to be feared 
from such men, and now that the duty was upon them again to 
maintain the Union they loyally and honestly undertook to do so. 
240. Senators. In January, 1867, Charles D. Drake was 
elected to the Senate of the United States to succeed B. Gratz 
Brown, whose term expired March the 4th of that year. Mr. 
Drake served till 1871, when he resigned to become a judge of 
the Court of Claims in Washington, and was succeeded by 
Francis P. Blair who served out the remainder of the term till 
1873. Carl Schurz (pronounced Shoorts) was elected for a term 
of six years, from 1869-75, to succeed John B. Henderson. Mr. 
Schurz was a native of Germany. After his term in that body 
terminated he was a member of President Hayes' Cabinet as 
Secretary of the Interior. 



218 



HISTORY OF MISSOURI. 



CHAPTER XXI, 



THE ADMINISTRATION OF GOVERNOR BROWN 



241. Benjamin Gratz Brown, the 20th Governor, served from 
January 1871 to 1873. He was born at Lexington, Kentucky, 
in 1826, and was a descendant of much honored families of 
Virginia and Kentucky. He received the best of schooling in 

his native State and graduated 
at Yale College at the age of 
twenty-one. He came to Mis- 
souri in 1849, settled in St. 
Louis, and began the practice 
of law, but abandoned it in a 
year or two. In 1852 he was 
elected to the Legislature and 
was re-elected in 1854, both 
times as a ''Free Soil man." In 
1854 he became editor of the 
''Missouri Democrat," and con- 
tinued as such till the breaking 
out of the war, with great ability 
and reputation. Early in the 
war he raised a Union regiment, became its colonel, and bore 
himself as a gallant and brave officer in the campaign in south- 
west Missouri. In 1863 he was elected to the United States 




B. GRATZ BROWN. 



THE ADMINISTRATION OF GOVERNOR BROWN. 219 

Senate by the radical emancipationists, and served till 1867. 
In 1866 he led the opposition to the test oath proscription. In 
1870 he was nominated for Governor by the Liberal Republicans, 
was elected and served two years. Then he returned to St. Louis, 
resumed the practice of law and gained distinction at the bar. 
In 1872 he was nominated by the Liberal Republicans for Vice- 
President along with Horace Greeley for President, and was 
defeated. He was a most excellent Governor, and did much 
to bring about peaceable and kind feelings between the discordant 
elements created by the war. He died in St. Louis, respected, 
honored and loved as a good and true man. 

242. Peace and Prosperity. As the people got away from 
the war and began to study the lessons it had taught, the better 
side of mankind again showed itself. A general desire for peace 
grew stronger and stronger. A purpose to restore order, to 
re-establish prosperity, to retrieve broken fortunes, was manifest 
everywhere. Many a noble estate had been swept awa}^ by 
the fell hand of cruel war. Many a rich plantation had been 
laid waste, many a comfortable farm-house had been burnt, 
cattle and horses and all kinds of stock had been seized and 
driven from the land, confidence was destroyed, and deep 
feelings of resentment had laid hold on those formerly neighbors. 
But now that it was all over, that the cause was gone, these 
feelings gave way to higher and better and more manly ones, 
and the determination was sure and settled that the war should 
be over forever. Men began, in their cool and quiet labors, to 
see that they could honestly differ about even such a thing as 
war. This was followed by peace and mutual confidence, and 



220 HISTOR Y OF MISSO URL 

now again the woodsman's axe was heard in the forests, the 
plow was set deeper into the soil, the grain ripened in the fields 
was garnered and sold in the open market. A few malevolent 
spirits still sulked abroad, but the great body of the people — 
Union and Confederate soldier, northerner, southerner, foreigner 
and native alike — united in action and feeling in intellectual and 
moral up-building. While the war had lasted many of the schools 
were closed, till at one time there were only 1,200 open. By 1870 
this number had increased to 5,000. Population had decreased 
from 1,182,000 in 1860 to about 900,000 in January, 1865. 
Now, in 1870, it was 1,719,000, according to the United States 
census, but in fact it was somewhat smaller. The taxable wealth 
had almost doubled within the four years previous to 1870. 
Tens of thousands of immigrants, mostly from the Atlantic States 
and north of the Ohio, had come into Missouri and acquired 
homes. On every side the people were fast effacing all traces 
of the war. 

243. Neither was the negro neglected nor forgotten. He had 
been a slave; he was now a citizen. He must be educated and 
taught the responsible duties of citizenship. Schools were 
established for him, too. At first this was opposed by many 
of the old slave-owners, but heartily supported by a few, and 
later on by all of them, and in many cases enthusiastically, until 
to-day there are good schools provided for him in every town 
and in almost every township. The annual length of these 
schools is the same as those for white children, though there is, 
as a matter of course, a difference in the comparative merit and 
worth. The negroes themselves have shown both a willingness 



THE A BMINISTRA TION OF GO VERNOR BR ^yN. 221 

and an earnest desire to be educated and to use the schools 
properly. In this State, the relations of the two races promise 
harmony and honest and just treatment. In spite of the carpings 
of pessimists and the slanders of the political partisans, the 
wide expanse of history does not contain an instance of more 
honorable, humane and wise treatment by a powerful dominant 
race of a weak and dependent one, lately liberated and left to 
live among their old owners, than that of Missouri furnishes. 

244. Railroad Difficulties. The Drake Constitution permitted 
counties to subscribe any sum of money to aid in building 
railroads. It unfortunately authorized the county court to issue 
bonds binding the county for the payment of these subscriptions 
whenever two-thirds of the qualified voters of the county should 
assent thereto. These courts, in some cases, were characterless 
or ignorant men, and the '^qualified voters" were not the people 
who owned the property of the county, and who, therefore, 
would have to pay its bonds, for many of them had been dis- 
franchised, but a class of men w^ho were governed more by other 
motives than justice and patriotism. The elections frequently 
were merely formal, only a small jDer cent of the tax-payers 
being permitted to vote. Dishonest speculators, in a few 
instances, bribed the courts to make the subscriptions without the 
people's knowledge or consent. Bonds to the amount of fifteen 
million dollars and over were issued by the various counties. 
But the roads were never built. Usually, work w^ould be com- 
menced on the road-beds at various places along the proposed 
routes, and kept up with great vigor for a few weeks, and then 
reports would come that the companies had become bankrupted, 



222 HISTOR Y OF MISSO URL 

and work would cease. Only partial payments were ever made 
for the work done. 

In the meantime, the bonds were run off to New York and 
elsewhere, and, before they had matured, were sold to third 
parties, who paid little or no money for them, but afterward 
claimed that they were innocent of any knowledge of the fraud 
practiced upon the tax-payers. As the courts had the power 
by law to issue the bonds, the United States Supreme Court 
held they must be paid. As a result, debts of several hundred 
thousand dollars were fastened upon Lafayette, Cass, Knox, 
St. Clair and other counties. 

245. Payment of these bonds luas, in a few cases, made in full; 
in others, terms of compromise were agreed upon by which the 
bond-holders accepted fifty or sixty or eighty per cent of the face 
of the bonds as full payment ; but in other cases, where the 
debts were enormous and the . fraud glaring, pa3aiient was 
resisted. In Cass county popular resentment became violent, 
and at Gun City on April 24th, 1872, a large uprising of the 
people put to death three men concerned in issuing the bonds. 
Judge J. C. Stevenson, one of the County Judges, and James C. 
Cline, County Attorney, had been indicted for complicity in the 
fraudulent issuing of the bonds. On this date they and Thomas 
Dutro, who was one of Cline 's bondsmen, were on a train which 
was intercepted by about three hundred citizens of Cass county. 
They were mercilessly shot down, and the train greatly damaged 
by the infuriated men. Popular feeling in Cass and surround- 
ing counties soon became intense. Governor Brown called out 
the militia, and sent General Frank Cockrell and Colonel John 



THE ADMINISTRATION OF GOVERNOR BROWN 223 

F. Philips as special commissioners for the State to urge peace 
and order. These efforts were entirely successful. Attempts 
were afterwards made to punish the men who assisted in the 
killing, but no jury could be persuaded to convict them. 
Since that time the bond-holders have brought suit against these 
counties in the United States courts, which decided against the 
counties and instructed the county courts to levy taxes to pay 
these debts. But a new set of judges had, in the meantime, 
come into office; men, who considered it unjust to pay bonds for 
roads that had never been built. They refused to levy the taxes, 
and were in some instances sent to prison for contempt of 
Federal authority. But there they were treated with considera- 
tion. But they would not order the levy, and, when they tired of 
the attempts to force them to do so, they would resign, and 
their successors pursued the same course. By this means the 
Federal courts were powerless to enforce payment, though 
various attempts were made for ten years. But in nearly every 
county these bonds have now been settled by compromise. 

246. There ivere other railroad debts. At different times prior 
to the war the State granted to various railroad companies aid 
in the construction of their roads by issuing State bonds to 
the amount of $23,701,000. For this aid the companies agreed 
to pay the interest on these bonds as fast as it became due, 
and if they failed to do so the roads were to be forfeited to the 
State. The Hannibal and St. Joseph road paid its bonds, which 
amounted to three million dollars, and also the interest. But 
default in the payment of the interest of the other roads was 
made between January, 1859, and July, 1861, and soon after the 



224 HISTORY OF MISSOURI. 

war the Pacific, the Southwest Branch of the Pacific, the Iron- 
Mountain, the North Missouri and other roads were sold by the 
State. In addition to this there was forfeited to the State and 
sold along with the roads 1,824,000 acres of land, which had 
been granted to them by Congress, and pledged to the State as 
payment of this debt. The entire debt at the time of the sale, 
including principal and interest, was over thirty-one million 
dollars, and the State realized from the various sales only a 
little over six millions, so that there remained a debt of 
twenty-five millions, which the State has since had to pay, 
besides the many millions in interest maturing since the sale. 
These railroad debts have been the source of nearly all the State's 
present debt. The original bonds bore six and seven per cent 
interest. But the State has steadily been paying the debt, 
and in 1885 it bought up nearly half of its six per cent bonds by 
new bonds which bear only three and a half per cent interest, 
and thus a great amount of money is saved annually in interest 
alone. 

247. The Election of 1872, The Liberal Republican move- 
ment which began in 1870, and which subsequently spread over 
all the Union, continued. Efforts were made to reunite the two 
discordant factions of the party, but they utterly failed. On 
August 21st, 1872, the Liberal Republicans and the Democrats 
met in separate conventions, in Jefferson City, to nominate a 
joint ticket. A committee of conference was appointed from 
each convention, which soon agreed upon a fusion ticket. The 
various offices were divided up between the two parties according 
to their numerical strength. The Democrats nominated the 



GOVERNORS WOODSON AND HARDIN. 225 

candidate for Governor, the four Supreme Judges, eight of the 
Presidential Electors, Treasurer, Attorney-General and Auditor ; 
the Liberals named the Lieutenant-Governor, Secretary of State, 
Register of Lands and seven Presidential Electors. Silas Wood- 
son of Buchanan county was the nominee for Governor, and 
Charles P. Johnson of St. Louis for Lieutenant-Governor. The 
two conventions then came together into one, and indorsed the 
nominations as a whole. In September, the regular Republicans 
nominated John B. Henderson for Governor. At the election, 
Woodson's majority was 35,444, and the entire electoral vote of 
the State was cast for Greeley for President and Brown for Vice- 
President. At the time for the next election in 1874, the Liberal 
Republican movement had disappeared, the vast majority of that 
party having become Democrats, but a few re-united with the 
regular Republicans. 



CHAPTER XXII. 

GOVERNORS WOODSON AND HARDIN 

. 248. Silas Woodson was born in Kentucky in 1819. He 
was reared on a farm, attended the *4og-school-house" in the 
neighborhood, and employed much of his time in reading and 
study. He was licensed to practice law at the age of twenty-one, 
and three years later was elected to the Legislature, and re-elected 
several times in the next twelve years. He also was Circuit . 



226 



HISTORY OF MISSOURI. 



Attorney for four years. In 1854 he came to Missouri and 
settled in St. Joseph, where he was soon recognized as a lawyer 
of marked ability. In 1860 he was elected Circuit Judge and 

served with acceptability through 
the stormy days of the war. He 
was elected chairman of the Dem- 
ocratic State Convention of 1872. 
He was not then a candidate for 
Governor. But there were six 
candidates, among them James S. 
Rollins, William H. Hatch and 
John S. Phelps. Three ballots 
were made without any choice, 
and in the midst of the fourth 
the name of Woodson was pro- 
posed as a compromise candidate, 
and it was received with such 
enthusiasm that he was nominated 
almost unanimously. He was inaugurated January 8th, 1873, 
and served two years. 

249. Woodson as Governor. During the term of Governor 
Woodson there was the greatest financial oppression. The crisis 
was precipitated by the failure of Jay Cooke & Company of New 
York in the spring of 1873. The panic soon became general. 
Every State in the Union felt the bitings and gnawings of 
business failure. In Missouri, bank after bank closed its doors, 
and business was temporarily paralyzed. To add to the troubles 
there was a failure in crops, owing to a drought which set in 




SILAS WOODSON. 



GOVERNORS WOODSON AND HARDIN. 227 

ill the summer of 1873 and lasted for eighteen months, with very 
little rain at any time. The Governor, in his message of 1874, 
said: ''Thousands who in days gone by have been able, without 
serious difficulty or great loss, to obtain money with which to 
pay debts or taxes, cannot procure a dollar for any purpose, 
except at the most ruinous sacrifices." He proposed to meet 
the difficulties, as far as possible, by cutting down expenditures 
in all offices, and so earnestly did he plead with the Legislature 
that it and subsequent sessions reduced State and county expenses 
nearly one-half in every branch of the State government except 
that of public education. 

250. The Grange. The financial troubles of 1873 and 1874 
were in part due to the natural collapse of the reckless specula- 
tion which seized upon the people at the close of the war, and 
of the high prices which that war had created with the assistance 
of a large amount of discredited paper money. But a very large 
part of the people did not accept this as the cause, and through- 
out the West there began to form farmers' societies which were 
called the Grange. Sometimes the order was called the Patrons 
of Husbandry, but it was better known by the former name. It 
spread rapidly throughout the West and soon had 1,200,000 
members, with local societies in almost every neighborhood. 
Many of its members, and most of its leaders, were men of 
intelligence and integrity, but its great membership was 
undoubtedly due to the financial troubles of 1873-74. The order 
refused to admit lawyers, bankers, capitalists and merchants 
as members. It was organized on the basis that nearly all 
financial troubles were due to bad legislation, and it proposed 



228 HISTOR Y OF MISSO URL 

to unite all laborers, especially farmers, in an attempt to repeal 
all bad laws and make all necessary good ones. This, of course, 
had been the desire of all good citizens from the beginning of the 
nation, but thoughtful men soon observed that the Grange acted 
upon the dangerous theory that any law which aided agriculture 
was bound to benefit all kinds of business and every pursuit. 
This led much of the press in the East, and even in the States 
wdiere the organization was strongest, to oppose it, as teaching 
doctrines which w^ould array one class of citizens against another. 
This opposition the Grange met by declaring the unfriendly 
press was dominated by the capitalists and corporations, and 
hence there began to be discordant relations between the order 
and the political parties. 

251. At the Election of 1874. the Democratic party nominated 
Charles H. Hardin of Audrain county for Governor, and 
Norman J. Colman for Lieutenant-Governor. The Republicans 
declined to make any nominations, but the Grange and that 
party united in what was called the People's Party, and 
nominated William Gentry, an extensive farmer of Pettis county, 
for Governor. The cry of the Granger members of the People's 
Party was ''Reform," by which they meant retrenchment in 
governmental expenditures. But Governor Woodson and the 
Legislature had already forestalled them by passing the laws 
cutting down expenses, and hence few of the Democratic farmers 
saw any reason to leave their party on that account. Hardin 
was elected by a majority of 37,463, and the Democrats elected 
all the thirteen Congressmen from the State. The part the 
Grange had taken in politics at this election caused much 



GOVERNORS WOODSON AND HARDIN. 



229 



dissatisfaction among its members, and the order soon began 
to lose power, and in a year or two went down almost as fast 
as it had risen. 

262. Charles H. Hardin was born in Kentucky in 1820, but 
came with his parents to Missouri when a mere infant. He was 
reared to manhood in Columbia, and enjoyed the advantages 
of good schools. He afterwards graduated with the degree of 
A.B. from Miami University, in Ohio. He returned to 
Missouri, studied law, located at Fulton, rapidly rose in his 
profession, and soon became known as a laborious, painstaking 
lawyer, whose pleadings always 
bore the test of judicial investi- 
gation. In 1848 he became 
prosecuting attorney for the 3rd 
judicial circuit, which embraced 
several counties, and during the 
entire term none of his indict- 
ments were quashed for inac- 
curacy. In 1852, '54 and '58 
he represented Callaway county 
in the Legislature as a Whig, 
and in 1855 was one of the com- 
mittee of three which revised 
all the laws of the State and 
codified them in book form. In 
1860 he was elected to the State Senate from the district 
composed of Boone and Callaway, and was the author of the 
resolution creating the convention to which was referred the 




C. H. HARDIN. 



230 HISTOR Y OF MISSO URL 

question of secession. He attended the called meeting of the 
Legislature held at Neosho in October, 18G1, and was the only 
member who voted against secession. He remained unalterable 
in his allegiance to the Union during the war but took no active 
part in the troubles of those times. In 1872 he was again elected 
to the Senate and maintained his former reputation for laborious 
and conscientious work. In 1874 he was elected Governor, and 
his administration was one of the most honorable in the entire 
history of the State. In 1873 a college for the education of girls 
was projected at Mexico, at which place he had lived since 1861, 
and named Hardin College in his honor. From his munificent 
hand it has received over $53,000 up to this time. 

253. Francis Marion Cockrell was elected United States Senator 
in 1875 to succeed Carl Schurz, and was re-elected in 1881, and 
again in 1887, and still represents the State in that high office.. 
He was born in Johnson county in 1834, and with the exception 
of Lewis V. Bogy, was the first and only native-born Senator 
ever elected from Missouri. He was reared to hard toil on the 
farm, and attended the common schools till 1851 when he 
entered Chapel Hill College^ in Lafayette county, whence he was 
graduated in 1853. He studied law, gained prominence in his 
profession, but resolved not to enter politics till he had reached 
his fortieth year. Early in the civil war he enlisted as a State 
Guard, took part in the battles of Wilson's Creek and Pea Ridge, 
then joined the Confederate army, rose rapidly to the rank of 
general, and took part in a score of the principal battles of the 
war. His gallantry and bravery at Vicksburg, Mississippi, and 
Franklin, Tennessee, have made his name historic for almost 



GOVERNORS WOODSON AND HARDIN. 



231 




FRANCIS M. COCKRELL. 



all time. ''Cockrell's Brigade" has been pronounced among 
the finest body of soldiers in the 
Confederate army. They were 
all Missourians. After the war 
a few years he again resumed 
the practice of law, and in 1874 
was a candidate for the Dem- 
ocratic nomination for Governor, 
but was defeated by C. H. Hardin 
by a very small majority, but 
in the following January was 
elected Senator, the first civil 
office he ever held. A State 
is rarely favored with a more 
faithful representative than Mr. Cockrell. 

254. Locusts. In 1874 and '75 all the country west and 
north of Missouri, even to and beyond the Rocky Mountains, was 
plagued by a devouring insect. Governor Hardin, in his message, 
called them the Rocky Mountain Locusts, but the people usually 
referred to them as Kansas' Grasshoppers. They were about two 
inches long and looked very much like the ordinary grass- 
hopper that has always been seen in this State, except their legs 
were of a reddish color, and parts of their bodies, wings and 
head were more or less reddish, also. They came down from the 
mountains in 1874, filling and almost darkening the heavens by 
their great number. They quickly overran Colorado, then came 
on through Kansas, and late in the summer invaded Missouri. 
In Colorado and parts of Kansas they ate up every green thing, 



232 HISTOR Y OF MISSO URL 

taking every live blade of grass and every leaf on tree and bush 
and flower and vegetable. They entered a few counties in 
Missouri, but in 1874 they came after most of the crops had 
matured, and hence did not do so much damage. They deposited 
their eggs, however, and as it became warm next year these 
hatched out in great numbers. The people fought them before 
they were able to fly, and thus greatly mitigated the pest. The 
most effective way was by digging ditches, putting in a few 
inches of straw, then driving the locusts into the ditch and 
burning the straw. Yet, in spite of all these efforts, they over- 
ran several counties along the western border of the State. The 
first months of 1875 were dark days for these counties. Their 
wheat and meadows were destroyed by the locusts. They 
planted their corn, but it was devoured as fast as it came up. 
Again they would plant it, thinking that the insects would leave 
as soon as they became able to fly, and again it was devoured. 
Governor Hardin proclaimed that June 3d, 1875, should be 
observed as a day of ' 'fasting, thanksgiving and prayer," for 
Divine deliverance from the vexatious plague. The proclamation 
was generally observed, especially in that part of the State where 
the danger seemed most imminent. But throughout the State 
the people responded liberally with money and provisions for the 
sufferers. About this time, in fact on the very next day, heavy 
rains set in. Up to that time the long continued drought had 
not abated in western Missouri, though slight rains had fallen in 
the spring months of 1875, but now they became heavy and 
frequent. This was regarded as a forerunner of deliverance. 
It was. The locusts began to move about June 11th, but a 



GOVERNORS WOODSON AND HARDIN. 233 

strong southwest wind drove them further into the interior of the 
State, but in a day or two the wind shifted to the east, and by 
the 15th the locusts were all gone. The next year they came 
again, but did little damage, and since that time have not 
appeared. The citizens of these counties began at once to 
retrieve the loss. They planted their crops again, and, the season 
being very favorable from that time on, the yield waS bountiful. 
All over the State the crops were prodigious in 1875, and this 
fact served largely to alleviate the business depression of the two 
previous years. 

255. The Neiv Constitution. The people did not become any 
nearer satisfied with the Drake Constitution as they more 
thoroughly adjusted themselves to re-establish peace. They felt 
it was out of harmony with the spirit of the age. At the election 
of 1874 a convention to frame a new constitution was voted for. 
Sixty-eight delegates, two from each senatorial district, were 
elected thereto on January 6th, 1875. They were able men, of 
great personal worth and wisdom. Their names may be found 
in the appendix. Sixty of them were Democrats, six Republi- 
cans and two Liberals. They met in the capitol May 15th, 1875. 
Waldo P. Johnson was elected president, and Nathaniel W. 
Watkins vice-president. A thorough revision of the entire 
organic law of the State was made. Some of the provisions at 
the time were thought to be radical, but so far they have worked 
no hardship, and the people seem as well satisfied with the 
Constitution as an intelligent people ever did with any law. 
In fact, all persons look to it as a very strong tower of defense, 
and a promoter of prosperity, peace and order. 



234 HISTOR Y OF IflSSO URL 

256. Only two of its provisions will here be spoken of. It 
prohibited the Legislature from imposing a debt upon the State 
in any amount above $250,000, without two-thirds of the voters 
at an election should authorize it to do so, and did not permit 
towns and counties to issue bonds for any purpose except the 
erection of public improvements. This w^as done to put a stop to 
the wasteful, and sometimes wicked, issue of bonds for building 
railroads. Its other marked feature was the thoughtful pro- 
visions in reference to public schools. Under the liberal laws 
it permitted the Legislature to make, Missouri now outranks 
almost every State in the Union in the amount of her school 
funds, and spends five million dollars every year for education. 
The other provisions cannot be presented, but, at the final vote in 
the Convention on its adoption, not a vote was recorded against 
it, and on the SOtli of October, it was adopted by the people, 
there being 91,000 votes for it and 14,500 against it. It went 
into operation January 1st, 1876, and has since been the 
supreme law of the State government. 

257. Terms of Office. By the new Constitution, the term of 
the Governor and of nearly all other State and many county 
officers was lengthened from two to four years, and it was pro- 
vided that the Governor and Treasurer could not be re-elected as 
their own successors. It was thought the Governor would 
choose men because of their special fitness rather than for their 
political influence in making his appointments, if not permitted 
to succeed himself. As the Treasurer handles the State's money, 
it was considered it would be less liable to be purloined if 
frequent changes were made in the officers, and for the same 



GOVERNORS WOODSON AND HARDIN. 235 

reason county treasurers and sheriffs are not permitted to serve 
continuously but four years, but almost all other officers are 
eligible to re-election for any number of terms. Elections under 
the new Constitution are held the first Tuesday after the first 
Monday in November, of all even years, and the officers elected 
assume their duties in the folloAving January. 

258. The General Assembly, under the new Constitution, 
meets only once in two years, unless called together by the 
Governor for a special term. It convenes on the first Wednesday 
of January of each odd year. Its members receive five dollars 
a day for the first seventy days of the session and one dollar 
thereafter. Once every ten years all the laws are revised and 
arranged in volumes called the Revised Statutes of Missouri. 
For this session the members receive five dollars per day for 
one hundred and twenty days. 

259. At the election in 1876 the Democratic and Republican 
party each nominated strong and talented men for Governor, 
John S. Phelps of Greene and G. A. Finkelnburg of St. Louis. 
The issues in the campaign that followed were largely national. 
The Democratic majority was 52,000, and Phelps was inaugurated 
Governor January 8th. Henry C. Brockmeyer of St. Louis was 
elected Lieutenant-Governor. 



236 



HISTORY OF MISSOURI. 



CHAPTER XXIII. 



FROM 1877 TO THE PRESENT TIME. 



260. John S. Phelps was born in Connecticut December 22'd, 
1814. His father, Elisha Phelps, was a lawyer of prominence 
in that State and served also as a member of the Legislature, 
in other State offices, and three terms in Congress. His grand- 
father was a gallant and brave 
officer in the Revolutionary war. 
He was educated at Washington 
(now Trinity) College, studied 
law and was admitted to the bar 
in his native State. In 1837 
he came to Missouri and settled 
at Springfield. Under the laws 
of the State then he must needs 
obtain a new license before he 
could practice law in Missouri, 
and that, too, from the chief 
justice of the Supreme Court. 
Phelps made the journey to 
Jefferson City on horseback, and on arrival learned that Judge 
Tompkins was some distance in the country at a saw mill. There 
the judge was found and the examination had, the applicant 
sitting on a log, and the hard knotty questions, hard like the 




JOHN S. PHELPS. 



FROM 1877 TO THE PRESENT TIME. 237 

logs around them, were plied by the learned judge. The license 
was written on a leaf torn from an old blue ledger and, from this 
unique circumstance young Phelps turned away to become one of 
the most prominent and influential men in the State's history for 
the next forty years. He soon became noted in southwest 
Missouri as a great lawyer, and in 1840 was elected to the Legis- 
lature as a Democrat. In 1844 he was elected to Congress, and 
was a member of that body continuously till 1862. At that time 
the most important committee of the House was the committee 
of Ways and Means, and of this Mr. Phelps was eight years 
chairman. When the war came on he sided with the Union, 
and did much toward aiding General Lyon in his efforts to grasp 
the State from the hands of Governor Jackson. In 1861 he 
organized '^ Phelps' Regiment," was its colonel for several 
months, and, at the battle of Pea Ridge, commanded it in person 
and saw it suffer a loss of thirty per cent of its men. In 1862 
he was military Governor of Arkansas. In 1863 he resumed the 
practice of law at Springfield. He was frequently put forward 
during the next few years for United States Senator as a Union 
Democrat, but always defeated. In 1868 he was the Democratic 
candidate for Governor and was elected in 1876, served for 
four years, and filled the office with creditable honor and 
wisdom. So well satisfied were the people with his administra- 
tion that he doubtless would have been elected again had not the 
Constitution adopted in 1875 made it impossible for him to 
succeed himself. He died in St. Louis in 1886. 

261. Senators. In 1873 the Legislature elected Lewis V. 
Bogy to the United States Senate, to succeed General Blair. He 



238 



HISTORY OF MISSOURI. 



possessed much ability, and was the first native of Missouri to 
be elected Senator by her own Legislature. He was a descendant 
of one of the old French families of the old river-town of Ste. 
Genevieve. He died while in office, and Governor Phelps 
appointed D. H. Armstrong of St. Louis his successor, to serve 
till the meeting of the Legislature in January, 1879. It elected 
General James Shields, of Carrollton, to fill out the unexpired 
term, which lasted only a few weeks, and George G. Vest of 
Sedalia to the new term. Mr. Vest was re-elected in 1885 and 
again in 1891, each time for six years. He and Mr. Cockrell 
are the present Senators from Missouri. 

262. George Graham Vest was born in Kentucky in 1830, 
and attended a celebrated private school for ten years, then 

entered Centre College, Ken- 
tucky, and graduated in 1848 ; 
and in 1853 graduated in law 
from Transylvania University. 
He came to Missouri the same 
year, began practice at George- 
town, then the county-seat of 
Pettis county, moved to Boon- 
ville in 1856, and in 1861 was 
a member of the Legislature, 
where he took the lead of the 
State Rights men. When the 
war began he went south, and 




GEOEGE G. VEST. 



was in Price's army when elected by the Legislature at Neosho 
to the provisional Congress of the Confederacy at Richmond, 



FROM 1877 TO THE PRESENT TIME. 



239 



Virginia, and served till 1863, and then was appointed Senator 
to the same body by Lieut. -Gov. Thomas C. Reynolds, to succeed 
General John B. Clark, Sr. In 1867 he returned to Missouri, 
resumed the practice of law, and in 1879 was elected United 
States Senator, which office he still holds. As an orator he has 
long been regarded as among the ablest the State has ever had. 

263. Thomas T. Crittenden was elected Governor in 1880. 
The Republican candidate was D. P. Dyer of St. Louis. 
Robert A. Campbell of St. Louis was elected Lieutenant- 
Governor. Mr. Crittenden was born in Kentucky in 1832, and 
reared at Cloverport on the Ohio 
river. His primary education 
was in the log-cabin school-house 
of that time, but in 1852 he 
entered Centre College in that 
State, and was graduated there- 
from in 1855. He studied law 
with his uncle, the great J. J. 
Crittenden, and came to Mis- 
souri and settled at Lexington. 
In 1862 he enrolled in the State 
militia, was made lieutenant- 
coloneL and served till the close 
of the war. He then resumed 




THOS. T. CRITTENDEN. 



the practice of law at Warrensburg as the partner of General 
Frank Cockrell. He became leader in the liberal movement for 
equality of citizenship, peace, fraternity and good will, and 
boldly advanced these ideas in a brilliant canvass of a great part 



240 



HISTORY OF MISSOURI. 



of the State. In 1872 he was elected to Congress, and again in 
1876. His administration is remembered mostly for the break- 
ing up of the James Boys band of outlaws and murderers, the 
terriblest set of train and bank robbers in all Western history, 
and also for a settlement of the Hannibal and St. Joseph 
railroad debt. The State had, in 1851 and 1855, issued its bonds 
to the amount of $3,000,000 to aid in building that road. 
During this administration, after a great number of law suits, 
the road paid the debt with interest. 

264. In 1882 died Judge William B. Napton, who had been a 
member of the Supreme Court twenty-five years between 1839 

and 1881 — a longer term than was 
ever accorded any other judge. 
He was born and reared in Prince- 
ton, New Jersey, and graduated 
from Princeton College. Then 
he went to Charlottesville, 
Virginia, where he was for six 
3^ears private tutor for General 
Gordon's family, and enjoyed the 
friendship of some of the most 
noted men of that State. He 
came to Missouri at the age of 
twenty-four, and, at the solicita- 
tion of Governor Miller, became 
editor of the ^'Booneslick Democrat" at Fayette, which at that 
time was the political center of the State In 1836 Governor 
Boggs appointed him Attorney-General, and in 1839 a member 




JUDGE W. B. NAPTON. 



FROM 1877 TO THE PRESENT TIME. 241 

of the Supreme Court, which position he held till 1852. In 1857 
he was elected, without seeking the office and without nomina- 
tion, a member of the court, but was ousted in 1862 by the 
provisional Convention. He at once took up the practice of law 
in St. Louis, and obtained great distinction. " Upon the sudden 
death of Judge Ewing in 1873, Governor Woodson, without the 
knowledge of Judge Napton, made out his appointment and sent 
him his commission as a member of the court. The appointment 
coming as it did, accompanied with the earnest solicitation of 
others, led him to accept the honor, and in 1874 he was elected 
to fill out the unexpired term of Judge Ewing, and served till 
1881. He was, perhaps, the finest scholar and most learned 
jurist ever actively connected with Missouri affairs. So 
honorable, able and great has been the Supreme Court of 
Missouri that it would have done honor to any nation in 
nistory, and of its great judges Napton admittedly is given the 
highest rank. 

265. There were three candidates for Governor in 188 If. The 
Democrats nominated John S. Marmaduke ; the Republicans, 
Nicholas Ford of Andrew county ; and the Prohibitionists, John 
A. Brooks of Kansas City. Neither Marmaduke nor Ford had 
any ability as public speakers, and neither had ever been 
intimately or extensively identified with State or national affairs ; 
consequently; the campaign was largely overshadowed by the 
national contest for the Presidency between Blaine and Cleve- 
land. The Prohibitionists, however, made a more energetic 
campaign and polled more votes than ever before or since. 
Marmaduke was elected, and Albert P. Morehouse was chosen 



242 



HISTORY OF MISSOURI. 



Lieutenant-Governor. The principal features of this administra- 
tion were the Local Option law and the legislation regulating, 
railroads. For some time public sentiment had been growing 
against the grasping power and extortionate greed of railroads. 
An effort was made in the Legislature of 1887 to give relief, but 
without success, and an adjournment was had, leaving the 

matter entirely unsettled, much 
to the regret of the Governor 
and a large part of the people. 
Thereupon he called an extra 
session to consider this ques- 
tion. After an animated ses- 
sion, prolonged through several 
weeks, a law was passed forbid- 
ding railroads to f)ool with each 
other in keeping up the price 
of traffic, also forbidding them 
from charging higher rates for 



short distances than for longer 
ones over the same road and to 
the same market, also from 
charging small shippers higher rates per car than large ones. 
The law seems to have satisfied the public demands, and since 
that time all agitation of the subject has quieted. 

266. TJie Local Option Law was enacted in 1887 in the interest 
of temperance. It gave to each town of 2,500 population the right 
to decide, by a majority vote, whether or not intoxicating liquors 
should be sold therein, and to all the rest of the county, except 




JOHN S. MARMADUKE. 



FROM 1877 TO THE PRESENT TIME. 243 

such towns, the same privilege. Under this law nearly all of the 
principal towns and a majority of the counties have held elec- 
tions. In a majority of them the vote has been against the 
selling of liquors, but in nearly every one of these cases the 
election has been declared invalid because proper notice was not 
given in the newspapers, or because of some other legal defect. 
The whole State of Missouri was alive with these elections in 1887 
and 1888, but of late years public interest in them has much 
declined. 

267. John Sappingtoii Marmaduke was born in Saline county, 
in 1833, being a son of M. M. Marmaduke, who became Governor 
on the death of Thomas Reynolds in 1844. He was reared on 
the farm, entered Yale College at the age of seventeen and West 
Point Military Academy at the age of twenty, from which he was 
graduated in 1857, and was assigned to duty in Utah as an officer 
in the regular army under the renowned Albert Sidney Johnson. 
When civil war broke in mad fury over the land, he resigned 
from the United States army, organized a company of State 
Guards and joined Governor Jackson at Boonville. Contrary to 
his advice. Governor Jackson, who was his uncle by marriage, 
ordered him to give battle to General Lyon at that place. He 
obeyed the order, led his little army to certain defeat in face of 
Lyon's stalwart troops, then quickly resigned from the State 
Guard, proceeded to Richmond and tendered his sword to 
Jefferson Davis, and then went off to the war. He became a 
colonel in Albert Sidney Johnson's army, and, for gallant con- 
duct at the battle of Shiloh, was breveted brigadier-general on the 
field. He subsequently took part in the war in Missouri and 



244 



HISTORY OF MISSOVRI. 



Arkansas. When the war was over he became a commission 
merchant in St. Louis. Afterwards he became interested in jour- 
nalism and became owner of 
a farmer's paper called the 
''Journal of Agriculture." In 
1876 he was elected Railroad 
Commissioner, and in 1884 
Governor, and served just three 
years, till December 28th, 1887, 
on which day he died. Albert 
P. Morehouse, the Lieutenant- 
Governor, immediately succeeded 
to the office and held it for one 
year. Mr. Morehouse was a 
native of Ohio, who came to 
Missouri in 1856, and after 
teaching school for a time 
became a lawyer, and rose to eminence in northwest Missouri 
as a citizen. He served several terms in the Legislature and died 
in September, 1891. 

268. At the election of 1888 the Democratic candidate for 
Governor was David R. Francis of St. Louis, and the Republican 
was E. E. Kimball of Nevada. Francis was elected, and Stephen 
Clay comb of Jasper county, was chosen Lieutenant-Governor. 

269. David Rowland Francis was born in Kentucky in 1850, 
and moved with his parents to St. Louis in 1866, where for four 
years he attended Washington University, graduating with the 
degree of Bachelor of Arts in 1870. His expenses while at college 




A. p. MOREHOUSE. 



FROM 1877 TO THE PRESENT TIME. 



245 



were defrayed partly by money he had earned as a newsboy in 
Richmond, Kentucky, during the 
war, from 1861 to 1864. To 
complete his education he in- 
curred a debt of several hundred 
dollars, which he repaid out of 
the first money earned after 
graduation. In 1870 he entered 
upon successful commercial 
pursuits, which he has continued 
to the present time. In 1884 he 
was president of the Merchants' 
Exchange. In March, 1885, he 
was elected Mayor of St. Louis, 
and in November, 1888, was 
elected Governor, and inaugurated 
January 14th, 1889. 

270. Conclusion. The census of 1890 gave the population of 
the State as about 2,679,000. This had been an increase of nearly 
400 per cent in forty years, or from 682,000 in 1850. No country 
in the world can show a more industrious, peaceable people, hon- 
estly devoted to the highest pursuits of civilized life. The 
population is scattered pretty evenly over the entire State. It is 
free from the baneful and deteriorating influences of very large 
cities, and the enervating effects of being separated from the 
throbbing, busy humanity of the world. 

The area of the State is 65,350 square miles, and it is divided 
into 114 counties. There are over 6,000 miles of railroad, and the 




GOV. D. R. FRANCIS. 



246 



HISTORY OF MISSOURI. 



taxable wealth of the State is about nine hundred million dollars. 
The State debt is a little over ten millions, and the bonds sell 
as high and readily in the markets of the world as those of the 
United States. The territory is well supplied with rivers, and 
the annual rainfall is large. There are lead, iron and zinc in 

untold quantities. A large part 
of the State is underlaid with 
excellent coal, and these beds are 
to be found in ready access to 
each county. Numerous other 
mineral products are found in 
large quantities and of excellent 
quality. The State is so rich in 
everything that contributes to 
the comforts of man that it could 
be made to supply the wants of 
twenty-five millions of people. 
There is a strong central Univer- 
sity at Columbia, and two others 
in St. Louis, namely, Washington 
University, and the St. Louis 
University. There are not less than forty colleges and semi- 
naries; the strongest colleges being William Jewell at Liberty, 
Central at Fayette, Westminster at Fulton, Drury at Springfield, 
Central Female at Lexington, Stephens and Christian at Colum- 
bia, Bayard at Clinton, Scarritt Institute at Neosho, and the three 
State Normals at Warrensburg, Cape Girardeau and Kirks ville. 
There are schools for the education of physicians and lawyers. 




CHIEF JUSTICE T. A. SHERWOOD. 



FROM 1877 TO THE PRESENT TIME. 247 

also commercial schools. Besides, there are nearly ten thousand 
public and private schools. The inhabitants of Missouri have 
always been a religious people, and in every county and town, 
and in almost every township, there are faithful men of God 
proclaiming the Gospel. The leading religious denominations 
are Baptist, Methodist, Catholic, Presbyterian, Christian, Epis- 
copalian, Lutheran and Congregationalist. 



APPENDIX. 



MIS SO UBl IXS TITUTES. 

271 — The Constitution adopted in 1820 provided for a State government which 
has since been changed in some minor respects, but these were so unimportant 
that in this division the institutes of the State as they now exist will be treated. 
The Constitution then adopted remained in force till 1865, with a few amend- 
ments. These could be made in this wise : The proposed amendment was first 
voted for by two-thirds of both houses of the General Assembly ; it must then be 
published three times in all the newspapers in the State at least twelve months 
before a general election; if two-thirds of both houses of the next General 
Assembly thereafter voted for the amendment it became a part of the Constitu- 
tion. In 1865 this Constitution was replaced by a new one adopted by a vote of 
the people, and this one was itself replaced by another adopted by a vote of the 
people in 1875, which is now in force. It can be amended by the Legislature 
submitting the proposed amendment to the people at a general election. The 
amendment must be published for four weeks in some newspaper in each county, 
and if a majority of the votes for and against it are for it, it becomes a part of 
the Constitution. The Constitution is the supreme law of the land, and all acts 
of the Legislature or of any convention in conflict with it are void. 

272 — The Officers of the State are, in a general way, Governor, Lieutenant- 
Governor, Secretary of State, Auditor, Treasurer, Attorney-General, Judges of 
the Supreme Court, Court of Appeals and Circuit Courts, Members of the General 
Assembly, Eailroad Commissioners, Superintendent of Public Instruction, and 
county officers. 

273 — The Governor had always been elected in Missouri by the direct vote of 
the people. This is done in a simple way. Each party has delegates from all 



250 APPENDIX. 

over the State which meet in convention and name its candidate for Governor 
and for the other offices as well. Then, on the first Tuesday after the first Mon- 
day in November the candidates are voted for at the polls and the candidate 
getting the most votes is to be the next Governor. This has always been the rule 
for electing the Governor, which has never been violated but once, and that was 
in 1861, when a convention called for other purposes considered it best, in order 
to keep the State in the Union, to declare the office of Governor vacant, and 
elected a provisional Governor to the office. The Governor's term of office was 
four years up to 1865 when, under the Drake Constitution adopted that year, it 
was changed to two years, but in 1875 was again changed to four years, and now 
no man can be elected for more than one term. He is the head of the govern- 
ment of the State, must live at the capital, can pardon criminals, veto or sign 
bills passed by the General Assembly ; appoints the warden of the penitentiary, 
commissioners of insurance, regents of the University, normal schools and 
asylums for the insane, and looks after the general interests of the State. The 
State furnishes him the mansion wherein he lives, and his salary is $5,000 a year, 
and a secretary at |2,000 He must be thirty-five years old, a citizen of the State 
seven years, and of the United States ten years at the time of his election. 

274 — The Attorney -General is the legal adviser of the State. His duty is to 
give written opinions to all the State officers and to the General Assembly, when 
requested, on any question affecting the interests of the State, and also to appear 
before the Supreme Court as the lawyer for the State in all suits to which the 
State is a party, and in all cases where convictions for crimes have been obtained 
and appealed to it for final adjudication. 

275 — The Secretai-y of State is elected every four years in the same manner as 
is the Governor. His duty is to keep the archives of the State, to keep the reg- 
ister of the official acts of the Governor and preserve and print the laws passed 
by the General Assembly, and issue commissions to notaries public, corporations, 
etc. His salary is $3,000 per year. 

276 — The Auditor is a kind of check on the Treasurer. It is his duty to 
examine and pass upon all claims against the State, to enter them proi^erly upon 
the records and to issue his warrant on the Treasurer for the payment of those 
found correct. He must also keep a full and accurate account with all persons in 
each county who handle the State's revenue, and keep a register of its bonds, of 
which he is custodian. His salary is $3,000 and his term of office is four years. 



MISSOURI INSTITUTES. 251 

277 — TJie Treasurer is the custodian of the State's moneys. He receives all 
dues and taxes paid the State and keeps tliem to be paid out again upon a war- 
rant from the State Auditor. His salary is $3,000 per year and his term four 
years. He cannot be re-elected aa his own successor. 

278 — TJie Superintendent of Public Instruction is the highest educational officer 
of the State. His duty is to look after the public school funds, apportion to each 
school district annually its share of the State fund, and to exercise a general 
supervisory control over the normal and public schools of the State. His salary 
is $3,000 per year. 

279 — The Railroad Commissioners are three in number, and the term of each 
is six years, but one is elected every two years. Consequently the Commission is 
a perpetual body, two of its members being at all times experienced Commission- 
ers. Their duty is to inspect railroads, regulate freight and passenger charges, 
and look after the enforcement of law regulating railroads. This is a new office 
and the extent of its usefulness has not yet been determined. The salary of 
each Commissioner is $3,000 per year. 

280 — The General Assembly is the legislative or law-making body of the State. 
It is composed of two houses, the Senate and House of Representatives. A bill, 
before it can become a law, must pass both houses and be approved by the Gov- 
ernor. If he vetoes a bill passed by both houses, that is, returns it with his 
objections without signing it, it then must be voted on again and passed by two- 
thirds of the vote of each house before it can become a law. By this means 
each house operates as a check upon the other, and the Governor's power of veto 
as a check on both. If a bad measure should incautiously be approved by one 
house its defects would most likely be discovered before it got through the other. 
Its defects or unrighteousness would not likely escape the detection of both the 
other house and the Governor too. In popular governments there is much more 
danger of having too many laws than too few. A law to be strong must impress 
the great mass of the people as being wise and just and necessary, and in our 
State a majority of both houses and the Governor must be convinced of the 
righteous wisdom of a bill before it can become a law. The General Assembly 
convenes in regular session the first Wednesday in January of each odd year 
and can convene by call of the Governor for special sessions. 

281 — The Senate is composed of thirty-four members, and the term of each is 
four years. The State is divided into thirty-four districts, and in each there is 



252 APPENDIX. 

about the same amount of population. The Senators from the odd-numbered 
districts are elected on Presidential years ; those from the even-numbered dis- 
tricts two years later; so one-half of the Senators are constantly experienced 
members. The presiding officer for the Senate is the Lieutenant-Governor, who 
appoints all committees, and who also becomes Governor on the death of that 
officer. The Senate approves or rejects the Governor's appointment of officers. 
The Senate can also impeach a State officer by a vote of two-thirds of the Sen- 
ators present. 

282 — The House of Bepresentatives is the more numerous branch of the 
General Assembly. It has at least one member from each county, and in large 
counties any number above one according to the population. The term of office 
is two 3'ears. The Speaker is the presiding officer. 

283 — The Judiciary Organization is composed of the Supreme Court, Court of 
Appeals, Circuit Courts, Probate Courts, and Justices of the Peace. It will be 
necessary here, before entering upon the discussion of these, to speak of our judi- 
cial system in general. There are two kinds of law in this State, known as 
common and statutory law, and equity law. The common law is derived from 
the old law in England and from the written decisions of judges of Supreme 
and Appeal Courts in this country, and gives great attention to forms and 
methods of procedure. The common law is always in force except when replaced 
or repealed by laws passed by the General Assembly which are called statutory 
laws. For its administration in the lower courts there are a judge, whose duty 
it is to declare the law, and a jury to apply the law as thus instructed by the 
judge. But frequently there arise cases in which neither the common nor statu- 
tory law can give relief. In these cases the matter is referred to the judge 
alone, who is guided by what help he can get from former decisions and by what 
he believes is right under the circumstances. Such is called equity law. In our 
State all the courts can try a common law or statutory case, but none except the 
Circuit and Appeal Courts can try equity cases. 

284 — The Supreme Court is the highest judicial tribunal in Missouri. It has 
in some respects more power than both the Governor and General Assembly. A 
law may be passed by the latter and signed by the former, which the Supreme 
Court may set aside as contrary to the State Constitution. It can undo acts of 
the General Assembly and of the Governor by pronouncing them wrong or with- 
out authority, but nothing can undo its acts except itself. Besides these powers 



MISSOURI INSTITUTES. 253 

of determining constitutional questions, it has appellate jurisdiction over crimes 
of the grade of felonies, and actions at common law and equity where the amount 
involved is not less than twenty -five hundred dollars, and over cases involving land 
titles. The court is composed of seven judges, each of whom serves ten years, 
at least one of whom is elected every two years. By this means there are four 
experienced judges at all times. The decisions of the court are written out and 
published in a continued series of volumes called the Jlissouri Seports. These 
decisions are binding upon all the inferior courts which usually give no decision 
in conflict with them. A judge may be re-elected. Formerly the Supreme Court 
was composed of three judges, who were appointed by the Governor and who 
could serve till they were sixty -five years of age. Now they are elected by direct 
vote of the people. Among the judges of the Supreme Court have been the 
ablest and most learned men in the State. The high ability and noble integrity 
of these men at almost all times are matters for State pride. 

285 — Courts of Appeal. There are two of these courts, namely, the St. Louis 
Court of Appeals and the Kansas City Court of Appeals. They are supplement- 
ary courts of the Supreme Court, and are established for the purpose of relieving 
that body of too much business. They are the courts of appeal for all suits in 
which a less sum than twenty-five hundred dollars is involved, and also in cases 
of lesser crimes. Each has three judges, all of w^hom serve twelve years. One is 
elected every four years, so that two members are always experienced judges. 
They have no jurisdiction over cases involving constitutional questions. The 
St. Louis Court of Appeals has jurisdiction over the eastern and southern part 
of the State and the Kansas City Court over the rest of it. The decisions of 
these courts are also published for the guidance of inferior courts in a series of 
volumes called the Missouri xippeal Beports. 

286 — Tlie Circuit Courts are the great trial courts of the State. There are 
thirty of them. Each is presided over by a judge who must be a lawyer. In 
each county there is a Sheriff, Clerk of the Court, Attorney, Grand Jury and 
Petit Jur}^ to assist him in carrying on the business of the court. The court has 
charge of civil cases, or cases growing out of contracts and wrongs, and also of 
criminal cases, but in the large cities, and a few counties, there are separate 
judges for criminal cases. In all trials in these courts, except in equity cases, 
every suitor has a right to demand a jury of citizens to pass upon his cause, but 
in a civil case the cause may, by the agreement of both sides, be determined by 



254 APPENDIX. 

the judge alone without any jury. In criminal trials, however, the jury cannot 
be waived except by a plea of guilty. 

287 — The Grand Jury is composed of twelve citizens of each county, appoint- 
ed by the County Court, for the purpose of inquiring into any violation of the 
law. They secretly investigate charges brought to their knowledge, and when 
convinced of their truth, present an indictment to the judge ; that is, they make 
out a formal accusation in writing, charging certain persons of certain crimes. 
Then the Sheriff takes charge of the indicted person and brings him before the 
court to be tried before the Petit Jury, which also consists of twelve men. The 
judge presides and the prosecuting attorney acts as the lawyer for the State. The 
sheriff is the executive officer of this court for all kinds of cases. He represents 
the State in making effective the decisions of the court. 

288 — The County Court has a supervisory control over the affairs of the 
county, except in cities where its duties are mostly done by councils and street 
commissioners. It allows demands against the county, issues warrants on the 
county treasury, cares for paupers, issues saloon licenses, builds bridges, opens 
up roads, orders elections, and chooses Grand and Petit Juries for the Circuit 
Court. It is composed of three members, one of whom is called the presiding 
judge. 

289 — The County Clerk is the clerical officer for the County Court. He keeps 
the record of the county's financial standing, which shows the amount of taxes 
assessed against each township, how much was paid, how much any creditor is 
indebted to the county, what is the amount of the county's debt, and for what it 
is due. The County Eecorder enters of record the deeds to land, and mortgages 
against all kinds of property, and issues and records marriage licenses. The 
Circuit Clerk keeps the records of the Circuit Court. The Collector gathers in 
the taxes due the county, turns over the money so collected to the Treasin-er, who 
pays it out upon warrants issued by the school boards. County Court, or Circuit 
Clerk, or sends it to the State Treasurer. The Coroner holds inquests over the 
bodies of persons who have come to violent or casual death, or those whom he 
suspects may have been murdered, and institutes legal inquiries as to the causes 
of their death. 

290 — The Probate Court, administered by one judge, looks after the property 
of minors, appoints administrators of the estates of deceased persons, allows 
claims against such estates and requires administrators to prove proper manage- 



STATE OFFICERS. 255 

ment thereof. He also proves wills to be genuine and secures homes for the 
insane. In every township there is a Justice of the Peace who is also called a 
magistrate. He is the conservator of peace for his township and county, and 
can determine suits not involving over §250, and also punish small misdemean- 
ors, and hold the perpetrators of felonies for examination by Grand Juries. The 
executive officer of his court is the constable. 



STATE OFFICEBS. 

The following list gives the Governors of Missouri during its entire history 
and the dates at which they w^ere such : 

Spanish Lieutenant- Governors — Pedro Piernas, 1770-75 ; Francisco Cruzat, 
1775-78; Fernando De Leyba, 1778-80; Francisco Cruzat, 1780-87; Manuel 
Perez, 1787-92; Zenon Trudeau, 1792-99; Carlos Dehault Delassus, 1799-1804. 

Territorial Governors — William Henry Harrison, 1804-05 ; James Wilkinson, 
1805-06; James Brown, Secretary and Acting Governor, 1806-07; Frederick 
Bates, Secretary and Acting Governor, May 1807 to October 1807; Meriwether 
Lewis, 1807-09; Frederick Bates, Secretary and Acting Governor, 1809-10; Ben- 
jamin Howard, 1810-12; Frederick Bates, Secretary and Acting Governor, 
1812-13 ; Wllham Clark, 1813-20. 

/S^aie G^overnors— Alexander McNair, 1820-24; Frederick Bates, 1824-25; 
Abraham J. AVilliams, August to December, 1825 ; John Miller, 1825-32; Daniel 
Dunklin, 1832-36; L. W. Boggs, 1836^0; Thomas Eeynolds, 1840-44; M. M. 
Marmaduke, February to November, 1844; John C. Edwards, 1844-48; Austin A. 
King, December 1848 to January 1853; Sterling Price, 1853-57; Trusten Polk, 
1857-57; Robert M. Stewart, 1857-61; Claiborne F. Jackson, inaugurated 1861, 
deposed July 31, 1861, died October, 1862; Thomas C. Reynolds in Jackson's 
stead from October 1862 till 1865 ; Hamilton R. Gamble, Provisional Governor, 
1861-64; Willard P. Hall in Gamble's place, 1864-65; Thomas C. Fletcher, 
1865-69; Joseph W. McClurg, 1869-71 ; B. Gratz Brown, 1871-73; Silas Woodson, 
1873-75 ; C. H. Hardin, 1875-77 ; John S. Phelps, 1877-81 ; T. T. Crittenden, 1881- 
85 ; John S. Marmaduke, 1885-88 ; A. P. Morehouse, 1888-89; D. R. Francis, 1889- 

Lieutenant- Governors — William H. Ashley, St. Louis, 1820 to November, 1824; 
Benjamin H. Reeves, Howard County, elected in 1824 and resigned within a few 



256 APPENDIX. 

months to become a member of the commission which opened up the noted road 
from Leavenworth to Santa Fe; Daniel Dunklin, Washington County, 1828-32; 
Lilburn AV. Boggs, Jackson County, 1832-36; Franklin Cannon, Cape Girardeau, 
1836-40; M. M. Marmaduke, Saline County, 1840 to February 9, 1844; James 
Young, Lafayette County, 1844-48; Thomas L. Price, Cole County December 
1849 to January 1853; Wilson Brown, Cape Girardeau, 1853-57; Hancock Jack- 
son, Randolph County, 1857-61 ; Thomas (J. Reynolds, St. Louis, elected 1860 and 
office declared vacant July 30th, 1861, by the Convention, and Willard P. Hall, 
Buchanan County, chosen to office provisionally and served till January 31st, 
1864; George Smith, Caldwell County, 1865-69; Edwin O. Stanard, St. Louis, 
1869-71; Joseph J. Gravelly, Cedar County, 1871-73; Charles P. Johnson, St. 
Louis, 1873-75; Norman J. Colman, St. Louis, 1875-77; Henry C. BrocKmeyer, 
St. Louis, 1877-81 ; Robert A. Campbell, St. Louis, 1881-85; Albert P. Morehouse, 
Nodaway County, 1885-88; Stephen H. Claycomb, Jasper County, 1889- 

Secretaries of State (Appointed by Governor up to 1852 ; thereafter elected by 
the people.) — Joshua Barton, St. Louis County, 1820-21; W. G. Pettus, St. 
Charles, 1821-24; Hamilton R. Gamble, Howard County, 1824-26; Spencer Pet- 
tis, St. Louis County, 1826-28; P. H. McBride, Boone County, 1829-30; John C. 
Edwards, Cole County, 1830-35; Henry Shurlds, Washington County, 1835-37; 
Peter G. Glover, Callaway County, 1837-39 ; James L. Minor, Marion County, 
1839-45; F. M. Martin, Jefferson County, 1845-49; Ephraim B. Ewing, Ray 
County, 1849-53; John M. Richardson, Greene County, 1853-57; Benjamin F. 
Massey, Jasper County, 1857-61 ; Mordecai Oliver, Greene County, selected by 
Convention in place of Massey removed, 1861-65 ; Francis Rodman, Buchanan 
County, 1865-71; E. G. Weigel, St. Louis, 1871-75; M. K. McGrath, St. Louis, 
1875-89; A. A. Lesueur, Lafayette, 1889- 

State Treasurers (Appointed by Governor till 1852 ; thereafter elected by the 
people.) — Peter Didier, St. Louis County, 1820-21; Nathaniel Simonds, St. Louis 
County, 1821-28; James Earickson, Howard County, 1829-33; John Walker, Cole 
County, 1833-38 ; Abraham McClellan, Jackson County, 1838-43 ; Peter J. Glover, 
Cole County, 1843-51 ; A. W. Morrison, Howard County, 1851-61; George C. 
Bingham, Jackson County, 1862-65, elected by Convention; Wm. Bishop, Cass 
County, 1865-69; W. Q. Dallmeyer, Cole County, 1869-71; Samuel Hayes, 
Buchanan County, 1871-73 ; Harvey W. Salmon, Henry County, 1873-75 ; Joseph 
Mercer, Jackson County, 1875-77; Elijah Gates, Buchanan County, 1877-81; 



JUDGES OF SUPREME COURT. 257 

Phil. Chappell, Cole County, 1881-85; John M. Seibert, Cape Girardeau County, 
1885-89; Ed. T. Noland, Jackson County, 1889-90; Lon. V. Stephens, Cooper 
County, 1890- 

Attorneijs- General — Edward Bates, St. Louis County, 1820-21 ; Rufus Easton, 
St. Louis, 1820-26; Robert W. Wells, Cole County, 1826-36; W. B. Napton, 
Howard County, 1836-39; S. M. Bay, Cole County, 1839^5; B. F. Stringfellow, 
Chariton County, 1845-49; William A. Robarts, Boone County, 1849-51; James 
B. Gardenhire, Buchanan County, 1851-57; Eph. B. Ewing, Ray County, 1857- 
59 ; J. Proctor Knott, Scotland County, 1859-61 ; Aikman Welsh, Johnson County, 
1861-64, appointed; T. T. Crittenden, Johnson County, 1864-65; Robert F. Win- 
gate St. Louis, 1865-69; Horace P. Johnson, Cole County, 1869-71; A. J. Baker^ 
Schuyler County, 1871-73; H. Clay Ewing, Cole County, 1873-75; John A. Hock- 
aday, Callaway County, 1875-77; Jackson L. Smith, Cole County, 1877-81; D. H. 
Mclntyre, Audrain County. 1881-85; B. G. Boone, Henry County, 1885-89; 
John M. Wood, Clark County, 1889- 

State Auditors (Appointed by Governor till 1852 ; thereafter elected by the 
people.)— William Christie, St. Louis, 1820-21; W. V. Rector, St. Louis, 1821-23; 
Elias Barcroft, St. Louis, 1823-33 ; Henry Shurlds, Washington County, 1833-35 ; 
Peter G. Glover, Callaway County, 1835-37; Hiram B. Baber, Cole County, 
1837-45; William Monroe, Morgan County, February to December 1845; J. R. 
McDearmon, St. Charles, 1845-48; George W. Miller, Cole County, 1848-49; 
Wilson Brown, Cape Girardeau, 1849-53; W. F. Buffington, Cole County, 1853- 
61; AV. S. Mosely, New Madrid County, 1861-65; Alonzo Thomson, Nodaway 
County, 1865-69; D. M. Draper, Montgomery County, 1869-73; George B. Clark, 
Washington County, 1873-75; Thomas Holladay, Madison County, 1875-81; 
John Walker, Howard County, 1881-89; John M. Seibert Cape Girardeau, 1889- 



JUDGES OF SUPREME COURT.* 

Appointed by Governor till 1851 ; thereafter elected by the people. 
Mathias McGirk, Montgomery County, 1822-41 ; William Scott, Cole County, 
1841-62, and then removed for failure to file oath; John D. Cook, Cape Girar- 
deau, 1822-23; Rufus Pettibone, Pike County, 1823-25; Robert Wash, St. Louis, 



*Sinee 1873 the term of the office of Supreme Judge has been ten years. 



258 APPENDIX. 

1825-37; John C. Edwards, May to December, 1837; William B. Napton, Saline 
County, 1839-52; John F. Ryland, 1852-58; W. B. Napton, 1858-62, and then 
removed for failure to file oath ; John Rice Jones, Pike County, 1822-24 ; George 
Tompkins, Howard County, 1824-45; P. H. McBride, Monroe County, 1845-49; 
J. H. Birch, Clinton County, 1849-52; Hamilton R. Gamble, St. Louis, 1851-54; 
Abiel Leonard, Howard County, 1855-58; John C. Richardson, 1858-59; E. B. 
Ewing, Ray County, 1859-62, and then removed by convention for failure to sign 
oath; Barton Bates, St. Charles, W. V. N. Bay, Franklin County, J. D. S. 
'Dry den, Marion County, appointed in January, 1862, by Governor Gamble, 
elected by people 1863, and ousted by convention of 1865, Bates resigning, and 
Dryden and Bay being removed by Governor Fletcher. David Wagner, 
appointed, 1865-69; Nathaniel Holmes, 1865-68; James Baker, 1868-69; W. L. 
Lovelace, 1865-66; T. J. C. Flagg, 1866-69. In 1868 three judges were elected: 
David Wagner, Scotland County, for six years, 1869-75 ; Warren Currier, 1869-73 ; 
Philemon Bliss, Boone County, for two years, 1869-71 ; Currier resigned in 1871, 
and Washington Adams, Cooper County, was appointed till 1873. H. M. Vories, 
St. Joseph, 1873-79; Washington Adams, 1873-75; Ephraim B. Ewing, from Janu- 
ary to June, 1873, deceased, and W. B. Napton appointed to fill vacancy till Janu- 
ary, 1875, then elected and served till 1881 ; Thomas A. Sherwood, Greene County, 
1873-83 ; Warwick Hough, Jackson County, 1875-85 ; John W. Henry, Macon 
County, 1877-87; Elijah H. Norton, Platte County, 1879-89; Robt. D. Ray, Car- 
roll County, 1881-91 ; ^ Thomas A. Sherwood, = 1883- ; Francis M. Black, 2 Jack- 
son County, 1885- ; Theodore Brace, ^ Monroe County, 1887- ; Shepard 
Barclay, 2 St. Louis, 1889- ; James B. Gantt,^ Vernon County, 1891- ; John 
L. Thomas,^ Jefferson County, appointed, 1891- ; G. B. Macfarlane,^ Audrain 
County, appointed, 1891- . 

Speakers of the House of Bepresentatives — James Caldwell, 1820-21 ; Henry S. 
Geyer, 1821-26; Alex. Stewart, 1826-28; John Thornton, 1828-32; Thomas Rey- 
nolds, 1832-34; John Jamison, 1834-38; Thomas H. Harvey, 1838-40; Sterling 
Price, 1840-44; Claiborne F. Jackson, 1844-48; Alex. M. Robinson, 1848-50; 
Nathaniel W. Watkins, 1850-52; Ruben Shelby, 1852-54; William Newland, 
1854-56; Robert C. Harrison, 1856-57; James Childs, 1857-58; John F. Coffe, 



1 Chief Justice at present; 2 constitute Division No. 1 of present court; ^ Constitute 
Division No. 2 of present court. 



REPRESENTATIVES IN CONGRESS. 



259 



1858-60; Christian Kribben, February to December 1860; John McAfee, 1860; 
Q. L. Marvin, 1863-64; Walter L. Lovelace, 1864-65; Andrew J. Harlam 1865-69; 
James C. Orrick, 1869-71; R. P. C. Wilson, 1871-73; Mortimer Mcllhaney, 
1873-75; B. G. Boone, 1875-77; John F. Wilhams, 1877-79; J. Edwin Belch, 
1879-81; T. P. Bashaw, 1881-83; Joseph S. Richardson, 1883-85; John M.Wood, 
1885-87; John W. Alexander, 1887-89; Joseph J. Russell, 1889-91; Wilbur F. 
Tuttle, 1891- 



UNITED STATES SENATORS. 



{A) 



(B) 



David Barton, Howard County, 1820-30; Alex. Buck- 
ner, Cape Girardeau, 1830-33; Lewis F. Linn, Ste. 
Genevieve, 1833-13; David R. Atchison, Platte 
County, 1843-55 — no successor till 1857; James S. 
Green, Lewis County, 1857-61; Waldo P. Johnson, 
St. Clair County, elected, resigned and expelled in 
1861; Robert Wilson, Andrew County, 1862-63; B. 
Gratz Brown, St. Louis, 1863-67 ; Charles D. Drake, 
St. Louis, 1867-70; Daniel F. Jewett, St. Louis, 
1870-71; Frank P. Blair, St. Louis, 1871-73; Lewis 
V. Bogy, St. Louis, 1873-77; D. H. Armstrong, St. 
Louis, 1877-79; James Shields, Carroll County, 
1879-79 ; George G. Vest, Pettis County, 1879- 



Thomas H. Benton, St. 
Louis, 1820-51 ; H. 
S. Geyer, St. Louis, 
1851-57: TrustenPolk, 
1857-61, resigned and 
was expelled ; John 
B. Henderson, Pike 
County, 1862-69; Carl 
Schurz, St. Louis, 1869- 
75; Francis M. Cock- 
rell, Johnson County, 
1875- 



REPRESENTATIVES IN CONGRESS. 



17th, 18th and 19th Congress (1821-27)— John Scott, Ste. Genevieve. 
20th Congress (1827-29)— Edward Bates, St. Louis. 
21st Congress (1829-31)— Spencer Pettis, St. Louis. 
22nd Congress (1831-33)— WilHam H. Ashley, St. Louis. 



260 APPENDIX. 

23rd Congress (1833-35)— William H. Ashley, St. Louis, and John Bull, Howard 
County. (Elections by general ticket till 1846.) 

24th Congress (1835-37) — William H. Ashley, St. Louis, and Albert G. Harrison, 
Callaway County. 

25th Congress (1837-39)— John Miller and Albert G. Harrison. 

26th Congress (1839-41)— John Miller, and John Jameson, Callaway- County. 

27th Congress (1841-43)— John Miller and John C. Edwards. 

28th Congress (1843-45)— James M. Hughes, Clay County; James H. Relfe, 
Washington County; John Jameson, Callaway County; James B. Bowlin, 
St. Louis, and Gustavus M. Brown, Monroe County. 

29th Congress (1845-47) — James B. Bowlin, St. Louis; James H. Relfe, Wash- 
ington County; Sterling Price, Chariton County (resigned and was suc- 
ceeded by William McDaniel, Marion County) ; John S. Phelps, Greene 
County, and Leonard H. Sims, Greene County. 

30th Congress (1847-49) — 1st District, James B. Bowlin, St. Louis; 2nd, John 
Jameson, Callaway County; 3rd, James S. Green, Lewis County; 4th, Wil- 
lard P. Hall, St. Joseph; 5th, John S. Phelps, Springfield. 

31st Congress (1849-51)— 1st District, James B. Bowlin; 2nd, W. V. N. Bay, 
Franklin County; 3rd, James S. Green; 4th, Willard P. Hall; 5th, John S. 
Phelps. 

32nd Congress (1851-53) — 1st District, John F. Darby, St. Louis; 2nd, Gilchrist 
Porter, Pike County ; 3rd, John G. Miller, Cooper County ; 4th, Willard 
P. Hall; 5th, John S. Phelps. 

33rd Congress (1853-55)— 1st District, Thomas H. Benton, St. Louis; 2nd, Alfred 
W. Lamb, Marion County ; 3rd, John G. Miller, 4th, Mordecai Oliver, Ray 
County; 5th, John S. Phelps; at large, Jas. J. Lindley, Lewis County, 
and Samuel Caruthers, Madison County. 

34th Congress (1855-57)— 1st District, L. M. Kennett, St. Louis; 2nd, Gilchrist 
Porter; 3rd, J. J Lindley; 4th, Mordecai OUver; 5th, Thos. P. Akers, 
Lafayette County; 6th, John S. Phelps; 7th, Sam Caruthers. 

35th Congress (1857-59)— 1st District, Francis P. Blair, St. Louis; 2nd, T. L. 
Anderson, Monroe County; 3rd, John B. Clark, Howard County; 4th, 
James Craig, St. Joseph; 5th, James H. Woodson, Jackson County; 6th, 
John S. Phelps ; 7th, Samuel Caruthers. 



REPRESENTATIVES IN CONGRESS. 261 

36th Congress (1859-61)— 1st District, J. R. Barrett, St. Louis; 2nd, T. "L. Ander- 
son; 3rd, John B. Clark ; 4th, James Craig; oth, J. H. Woodson ; 6th, John 
S. Phelps; 7th, John AV. Noell, St. Francois County. 

37th Congress (1861-63) — 1st District, Francis P. Blair (resigned and J. R. 
Barrett elected) ; 2nd, James S. Rollins, Boone County ; 3rd, John B. Clark 
(expelled and Wm. A. Hall elected in his stead) ; 4th, E. H. Norton. 
Platte Count}' ; 5th, John W. Reid, Jackson County (expelled and Thos L. 
Price, Cole County, elected) ; 6th, John S. Phelps; 7th, John W. Noell. 

38th Congress (1863-65) — 1st District, James Knox, St. Louis; 2nd, Henry T. 
Blow, St. Louis; 3rd, John W. Noell (died, and John G. Scott, Jefferson 
County, elected) ; 4th, Semphronius H. Boyd, Greene County; 5th, Joseph 
W. McClurg, Camden County; 6th, Austin A. King, Ray County; 7th 
Benj. F. Loan, Buchanan County; 8th, Wm. A. Hall, Randolph County; 
Oth, James S. Rollins. 

39th Congress (1865-67) — 1st District, John Hogan, St. Louis, 2nd, Henry T. 
Blow; 3rd, Thomas Noell, St. Francois County; 4th, John R Kelsoe; 5th, 
Joseph W. McClurg; 6th, Robt. T. Van Horn, Kansas City; 7th, Benj. F. 
Loan, Buchanan County ; 8th, John F. Benjamin, Shelby County ; 9th, 
George W. Anderson, Pike County. 

40th Congress (1867-69)— 1st District, Wm. A. Pile, St. Louis; 2nd, C. A. New- 
combe; 3rd, Thos. E. Noell (deceased, and J. R. McCormick, Iron Countj% 
elected); 4th, J. J. Gravelly, Cedar County; 5th, Jos. W. McClurg 
(resigned, and John H. Stover, Morgan County, elected); 6th, R. T. Van 
Horn; 7th, B. F. Loan; 8th, John F. Benjamin; 9th, Geo. W. Ander- 
son. 

41st Congress (1869-71)— 1st District, Erastus Wells, St. Louis; 2nd, G. A. Fin- 
kelnburg, St. Louis; 3rd, J. R. McCormick; 4th, S. H. Boyd, Greene 
County ; 5th, S. S. Burdette, St. Clair County ; 6th, Robt. T. Van Horn ; 
7th, Joel F. Asper, Livingston County; 8th, J. F. Benjamin; 9th, Pat 
Dyer, Pike County. 

42nd Congress (1871-73)— 1st District, Erastus Wells; 2nd, G. A. Finkelnburg; 
3rd, J. R. McCormick; 4th, H. E. Havens, Greene County; 5th, 8. S. 
Burdette; 6th, A. Comingo, Jackson County; 7th, I. C.Parker, St. Joseph; 
8th, James G. Blair, Lewis County; 9th, Andrew King, St. Charles 
County. 



262 APPENDIX. 

43rd Congress (1873-75) — 1st District, E. O. Stanard, St. Louis; 2nd, Erastus 
Wells; 3rd, W. H. Stone, St. Louis; 4th, Kobt. A. Hatcher, New Madrid; 
5th, Eichard P. Bland, Laclede County; 6th, H. E. Havens; 7th, T. T. 
Crittenden, Johnson County; 8th, Abram Comingo; 9th, I. C. Parker; 
10th, I. B. Hyde, Mercer County; 11th, John B. Clark, Jr., Howard 
County; 12th, John M. Glover, Lewis County; 13th, A. H. Buckner, 
Audrain County. 

44th Congress (1875-77) — 1st District, Edward C. Kehr, St. Louis; 2nd, Erastus 
Wells, St. Louis; 3rd, Wm. H. Stone, St. Louis; 4th, Kobt. A. Hatcher; 
5th, Eichard P. Bland; 6th, Chas. H. Morgan, Lamar; 7th, John F. 
Philips, Sedalia; 8th, Benjamin J. Franklin, Kansas City; 9th, David Eea, 
Savannah ; 10th, Eezin A. DeBolt, Trenton ; 11th, John B. Clark, Jr. ; 12th, 
John M. Glover, La Grange; 13th, Aylett H. Buckner, Mexico. 

45th Congress (1877-79)— 1st District, Anthony Ittner, St. Louis; 2nd, Nathan 
Cole, St. Louis; 3rd, Lyne S. Metcalf, St. Louis; 4th, Robt. A. Hatcher; 
5th, Eichard P. Bland; 6th, Chas. H. Morgan; 7th, T. T. Crittenden; 
8th, Benjamin J. Franklin; 9th, David Eea; 10th, Henry M. Pollard, 
Chillicothe; 11th, John B. Clark, Jr.; 12th, John M. Glover; 13th, Aylett 
H. Buckner. 

46th Congress (1879-81)— 1st District, Martin L. Clardy, Farmington ; 2nd, Erastus 
Wells, St. Louis; 3rd, E. Graham Frost, St. Louis; 4th, Lowndes H. Davis, 
Jackson ; 5th, Eichard P. Bland ; 6th, James E. Waddill, Springfield ; 7th, 
Alfred M. Lay, Jefferson City (died 1879, John F. Philips, elected) ; 8th, 
Sam, L. Sawyer, Independence; 9th, Nicholas Ford, Andrew County ; 10th, 
Gideon F. Eothwell, Moberly ; 11th, John B. Clark, Jr.; 12th, Wm. H. 
Hatch, Hannibal; 13th, Aylett H. Buckner, 

47th Congress (1881-83)— 1st District, Martin L, Clardy; 2nd, Thos. Allen, St. 
Louis, died, and succeeded by James H. McLean, St. Louis; 3rd, E. 
Graham Frost; 4th, Lowndes H. Davis; 5th, Eichard P. Bland; 6th, Ira 
S. Hazeltine, Springfield; 7th, Huron M. Eice, Boonville; 8th, E. T. Van 
Horn; 9th, Nicholas Ford; 10th, Joseph H. Burrows, Gainesville; 11th, 
John B. Clark, Jr.; 12th, Wm. H. Hatch; 13th, Aylett H. Buckner. 

48th Congress (1883-85)— 1st District, W. H. Hatch ; 2nd, Armstead M. Alexander, 
Paris; 3rd, Alexander M. Dockery, Gallatin; 4th, James N. Burns, St. 
Joseph; 5th, Alex. Graves, Lexington; 6th, John Cosgrove, Boonville.; 



REPRESENTATIVES IN CONGRESS. 263 

7th, Aylett H. Buckner; 8th, John J. O'Neil, St. Louis; 9th, James O. 

Broadhead, St. Louis; 10th, Martin L. Clardy ; 11th, Eichard P. Bland; 

12th, Chas. H. Morgan; 13th, Eobt. W. Fyan, Marshfield; 14th, Lowndes 

H. Davis. 
49th Congress (1885-87)— 1st District, Wm. H. Hatch; 2nd, JohnB. Hale, Car- 

rollton ; 3rd, Alex. M. Dockery ; 4th, James N Burnes ; 5th, Wm. Warner, 

Kansas City; 6th, John T. Heard, Sedalia; 7th, John E. Hutton, Mexico; 

8th, John J. O'Neil; 9th, John M. Glover, St. Louis; 10th, Martin L. 

Clardy; 11th, Richard P. Bland; 12th, Wm. J. Stone, Nevada; 13th, Wm. 

H. Wade, Springfield; 14th, Wm. Dawson, New Madrid. 
50th Congress (1887-89)— 1st District, Wm. H. Hatch; 2nd, Chas. H. Mansur, 

Chillicothe; 3rd, Alex. M. Dockery; 4th, James N. Burnes (died 1889, 

Chas. F. Booher, Savannah, elected); 5th, Wm. Warner; 6th, John T. 

Heard ; 7th, J. E. Hutton ; 8th, John J. O'Neil ; 9th, John M. Glover ; 10th, 

Martin L. Clardy; 11th, Richard P. Bland; 12th, Wm. J. Stone; 13th, 

Wm. H. Wade; 14th, James P. Walker, Dexter. 
51st Congress (1889-91)— 1st District, Wm. H. Hatch; 2nd, Chas. H. Mansur, 

Chillicothe; 3rd, Alex. M. Dockery; 4th, Robt. P. C. Wilson, Platte City; 

5th, John C. Tarsney, Kansas City; 6th, John T. Heard; 7th, Richard H. 

Norton, Troy; 8th, F. G. Niedringhaus, St. Louis; 9th, Nathan Frank, St. 

Louis; 10th, Wm. H. Kinsey, St. Louis; 11th, Richard P. Bland; 12th, 

Wm. J. Stone; 13th, Wm. H. Wade; 14th, James P. Walker (died, R. H. 

Whitelaw, Cape Girardeau, elected). 
52n.l Congress (1891-93)— 1st District, Wm. H. Hatch; 2nd, Chas. H. Mansur; 

3rd, Alex. M. Dockery; 4th, R. P. C. Wilson; 5th, J. C. Tarsney; 6th, 

J. T. Heard; 7th, R. H. Norton; 8th, J. J. O'Neil; 9th, S€th W. Cobb, St. 

Louis; 10th, Sam. Byrns, Potosi; 11th, R. P. Bland; 12th, David A. 

DeArmond, Butler ; 13th, R. W. Fyan, Marshfield ; 14th, Marshall Arnold, 

Benton. 



264 



APPENDIX. 



MEMBEBS OF THE CONVENTION OF 1861. 



J. S. Allen, Harrison County. 

Eli E. Bass, Boone County. 

Geo. Y. Bast, Montgomery County. 

R. A. Brown, Cass County. 

Orson Bartlett, Stoddard County. 

J. H. Birch, Clinton County. 

Joseph Bogy, Ste. Genevieve County. 

S. M. Breckenridge, St, Louis. 

J. O. Broadhead, St. Louis. 

H. E. Bridge, St. Louis. 

Isidor Bush, St. Louis. 

J. R. Chenault, Jasper County. 

Samuel C. Collier, Madison County 

A. Comingo, Jackson County. 

R. W. Crawford, Lawrence County. 

Robert Calhoun, Callaway County 

M. P. Cayce, St. Francois County. 

R. W. Donnell, Buchanan County. 

Geo. W. Dunn, Ray County. 

Wm. Douglas, Cooper County. 

Charles Drake, Moniteau County. 

A. W. Doniphan, Clay County. 

C. D. Eitzen, Gasconade County. 

R. B. Frayzer, St. Charles County. 

Joseph Flood, Callaway County. 

John D. Foster, Adair County. 

N. F. Givens, Clark County. 

H. M. Gorin, Scotland County. 

H. R. Gamble, St. Louis. 

T. T. Gantt, St. Louis. 

J. J. Gravelly, Cedar County. 

A. S. Harbin, Barry County. 

R. A. Hatcher, New Madrid County. 



V. B. Hill, Pulaski County. 

W. J. Howell, Monroe County. 

Prince L. Hudgins, Andrew County. 

Willard P. Hall, Buchanan County. 

William A. Hall, Randolph County. 

John B. Henderson, Pike County. 

Littleberry Hendrick, Greene County. 

Henry Hitchcock, St. Louis. 

Robert Holmes, St. Louis. 

John Holt, Dent County. 

Harrison Hough, Mississippi County. 

John How, St. Louis. 

J. M. Irwin, Shelby County. 

Z. Isbell, Osage County. 

William Jackson, Putnam County. 

R. W. Jamison, Webster County. 

J. W. Johnson, Polk County. 

J. Proctor Knott, Cole County. 

C. G. Kidd, Henry County. 

W. T. Leeper, Wayne County. 

M. L. L. Linton, St. Louis. 

John F. Long, St. Louis. 

J. T. Matson, Ralls County. 

A. W. Maupin, Franklin County. 

J. H. Moss, Clay County. 

Vincent Marmaduke, Saline County. 

A. C. Marvin, Henry County. 

J. W. McClurg, Camden County. 

J. R. McCormick, Perry County. 

Nelson McDowell, Dade County. 

James McFerrain, Daviess County. 

Ferd. Myer, St. Louis. 

W. L. Morrow, Dallas County. 



THE ORGANIZATION OF THE COUNTIES. 



'Z65 



E. H. Norton, Platte County. 

J. C. Noell, Bollinger County. 

Samuel Orr, Greene Count3\ 

John F. Philips, Pettis County. 

Wm. G. Pomeroy, Crawford County. 

Philip Pipkin, Iron County. 

Sterling Price, Chariton County. 

J. P. Eoss, Morgan County. 

R. D. Ray, Carroll County. 

J. T. Redd, Marion County. 

C. G. Rankin, Jefferson County. 

M. H. Ritchey, Newton County. 

Fred. Rowland, Macon County. 

S. L. Sawyer, Lafayette County. 

E. K. Sayre, Lewis County. 

J. K. Sheeley, Jackson County. 

Robert M. Stewart, Buchanan County. 



Thos. Scott, Miller County. 

Thos. Shackelford, Howard County. 

J. H. Shackelford, St. Louis. 

Jacob Smith, Linn County. 

Sol. Smith, St. Louis. 

J. T. Tindall, Grundy County. 

W. W. Turner, Laclede County. 

J. G. Waller, Warren County. 

N. W. Watkins, Cape Girardeau County. 

Warren Woodson, Boone County. 

A. M. Woolfolk, Livingston Count}'. 

LTriel Wright, St. Louis. 

Aikman Welch, Johnson County. 

Robert Wilson, Buchanan County. 

Ellzey Van Buskirk, Holt County. 

G. W. Zimmerman, Lincoln County. 



THE ORGANIZATION OF THE COUNTIES. 

Originally there were five districts or counties in the Territory, viz. : St. Louis, 
St. Charles, Ste. Genevieve, Cape Girardeau, and New Madrid. The various 
sessions of the Legislature, both in the Territorial days and after Missouri became 
a State, organized counties as follows : 

In 1813 — Jefferson, Franklin, Wayne, Lincoln, Pike, Madison, Montgomery 
and Cooper. In 1820 — Lillard, Perry, Ray, Cole, Chariton, Ralls, Saline, Gas- 
conade, Boone and Callaway. In 1821 — St. Francois and Scott. In 1822— Clay. 
In 1826 — Jackson, Marion and Lafayette (changed from Lillard). In 1829 — 
Crawford. In 1830-31— Randolph. In 1832-33— Carroll, Chnton, Greene, Mon- 
roe, Lewis, Morgan, Pettis, Pulaski, Ripley, Warren and St. Clair. In 1834-35 — 
Barry, Henry, Benton, Johnson, Polk, Shelby, Stoddard, Cass and Van Buren. 
In 1836-37 — Audrain, Caldwell, Clark, Daviess, Linn, Livingston, Macon, Miller 
and Taney. In 1838-39^Newton, Platte and Buchanan. In 1841— Adair, 
Andrew, Shannon, Bates, Camden (changed from Kinderhook), Dade, Gentry, 



266 



APPENDIX. 



Grundy, Holt, Jasper, Scotland and Wright. In 1842 — Dallas, Osage and 
Ozark, In 1845 — Atchison, Dunklin, Harrison, Knox, Mercer, Mississippi, Mon- 
iteau, Xodaway, Putnam, Reynolds, Schuyler, Sullivan, Texas and Hickory. In 
1849 — Butler, McDonald, Laclede and Stone. In 1851 — Bollinger and Vernon. 
In 1855 — Barton, Maries and Webster. In 1857 — Douglas, Howell, Iron and 
Phelps. In 1859— Carter. In 1860— Christian. In 1861— Pemiscot and Worth. 
These dates show the movement of population and the disposition of the people, 
as soon as they became sufficiently numerous, to separate from the old mother 
counties and form new ones of their own. 



MEMBEB8 OF THE CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION OF 1873. 



Waldo P. Johnson, St. Clair County, 

President. 
Nathaniel W. AVatkins, Scott County, 

Vice-President. 

A. M. Alexander, Monroe County. 
W. Adams, Cooper County. 

D. C. Allen, Clay County. 

F. M. Black, Jackson County. 
H. C. Brockmeyer, St. Louis. 
H. Boone, DeKalb County. 

G. W. Bradfield, Laclede County. 
J. O Broadhead St. Louis. 

G. W Carlton, Pemiscot County. 
Wm. Chrisman, Jackson County. 
L. F. Cotty, Knox County. 
S. R. Crockett, Vernon County. 
T. W. B. Crews, FrankUn County. 

E. V. Conway, St. Francois County. 
L. J. Dry den, Warren County. 

B. R. Dysart, Macon County. 

L. H. Davis, Cape Girardeau County. 



J. C. Edwards, St. Louis. 

C. D. Eitzen, Gasconade County. 

J. F. T. Edwards, Iron County. 

R. W. Fyan, Webster County. 

J. L. Farris, Ray County. 

L. Gottschalk, St. Louis. 

J. Hyer, Dent County. 

T. T. Gantt, St. Louis. 

J. A. Holliday, Caldwell County. 

J. B. Hale, Carroll County. 

W. Halliburton, Sullivan County. 

C. Hammond, Chariton County. 

N. C. Hardin, Pike County. 

T. J. Johnston, Nodaway County. 

H. B. Johnson, Goi©- County. 

H. C. Lackland, St. Charles County. 

A. M. Lay, Cole County. 

W. H. Letcher, Saline County. 

E. McCabe, Marion County. 

A. V. McKee, Lincoln County. 

M. McKellop, Atchison County. 



LOCATION OF STATE INSTITUTIONS. 



267 



P. Mabrey, Ripley County. 

B. F. Massey, Newton County. 
H. T. Mudd, St. Louis. 

C. B. McAfee, Greene County. 
N. A. Mortell, St. Louis. 

J. A. Maxey, Howell County. 
E. H. Norton, Platte County. 
E. A. Nickerson, Johnson County. 
William Priest, Ealls County. 
Joseph Pulitzer, St. Louis. 
P. Pipkin, Jefferson County. 
J. H. Rider, Bollinger County. 
J. P. Ross, Morgan County. 
J. R. Rippey, Schuyler County. 



J. F. Rucker, Boone County. 

J. W. Ross, Polk County. 

J. C. Roberts, Buchanan County. 

John Ray, Barry County. 

Wm. F. Switzler, Boone County. 

J. H. Shanklin, Grundy County. 

Thomas Shackelford, Howard County. 

H. J. Spaunhorst, St. Louis. 

Geo. H. Shields, St. Louis. 

J. H. Taylor, Jasper County. 

A. R. Taylor, St. Louis. 

A. Todd, St. Louis. 

Levi J. Wagner, Scotland County. 

H. C. Wallace, Lafayette County. 



LOCATION OF STATE INSTITUTIONS. 



*University, Columbia ; School of Mines and Metallurgy, Rolla ; Normals for 
education of teachers, Kirksville, Warrensburg and Cape Girardeau; Lincoln 
Institute, for education of colored teachers, Jefferson City ; Lunatic Asylums, 
No. 1 Fulton, No. 2 St. Joseph, No. 3 Nevada; Supreme Court, Jefferson City; 
United States Court for the Western District of Missouri, John F. Philips, Judge, 
holds its sessions at Kansas City, Springfield, Jefferson City and St. Joseph ; 
United States Court for Eastern District of Missouri, Amos L. Thayer, Judge, 
holds its sessions at St. Louis and Hannibal ; Penitentiary, Jefferson City ; 
Reform School for Boys, Boonville ; Reform School for Girls, Chillicothe; Deaf 
and Dumb Asylum, Fulton. 



*The main buDding of the University was destroyed by fire January 8th, 1892. 



DIVISIONS. 



Part I. — French and Spanish Period. 

PAGE. 

Chapter I — Discoveries 4 

" II— First Settlements 9 

III— Spanish Rule ^ 13 

Part II. — Territorial Period. 

• 

Chapter I — The Louisiana Purchase 22 

** II— Missouri's First Years as a Territoiy 25 

" III — Exploring Expeditions 30 

i' IV— New Madrid Earthquake 32 

«^ V— Other Settlements 34 

Part III. — Missouri as a State. 

Chapter I— Admission of Missouri into the Union 46 

" II -First Years as a State 54 

III— Bates and Miller, 1824-32 62 

" IV Governor Dunkhn's Administration, 1832-36 71 

" V — Governor Boggs and Mormon Troubles 76 

" VI — Governors Reynolds and Marmaduke 83 

" VII— Governors Edwards and King 92 

" VIII — Benton and the Jackson Resolutions 103 

'' IX — Price, Stewart and Kansas Troubles 110 

X— 1860 and the War 126 

" XI— First Movements of 1861 130 

'• XII — The Convention Against Secession 138 

" XIII — The Arsenal and Camp Jackson 143 

" XIV — Boonville, Carthage and Cowskin Prairie 159 

" XV— Battle of Wilson's Creek 167 

XVI— The Last Months of 1861 175 

XVII— Events in 1862 182 

XVIII— 1863 and 1864 190 

" XIX— The Administration of Governor Fletcher 203 

" XX— McClurg's Administration 214 

'' XXI — The Administration of Governor Brown 218 

" XXII — Governors Woodson and Hardin 225 

'* XXIII— From 1877 to the Present Time 236 

Appendix — Missouri Institutes and List of Officers 249 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS-. 



PAGE. 

Atchison, D. R 113 

Bates, Edavard 68 

Bates, Frederick 63 

Benton, Thos. H 106 

Blair, Frank P 156 

BoGGS, L. W 76 

Boone, Daniel 36 

Broadhead, Jas. O 139 

Brown, B. Gratz 218 

Clark, John B., Sr 85 

Clark, Capt. William 38 

Cockrell, Francis M 231 

Crittenden, T. T 239 

Doniphan, Alex. W 95 

Drake, Chas. D 206 

Dunklin, Daniel 71 

Easton, Rufus 61 

Edwards, John C 92 

Fletcher, Thos C 204 

Francis, David R 245 

Gamble, Hamilton R 201 

Geyer, H. S 108 

Green, Jas. S 115 

Guitar, Odin 186 

Hall, WiLLARD P 203 

Hardin, Chas. H 229 

Jackson, Claiborne F 132 



PAGE, 

Jones, John Rice 59 

King, Austin A 100 

La Salle 7 

Lewis, Meriwether 30 

Linn, Dr. L. F 89 

Lyon, Captain Nathaniel 145 

McClurg, Joseph W 214 

McNair, Alexander 55 

Marmaduke, John S 242 

Marmaduke, M. M..... 90 

Miller, John 66 

Morehouse, A. P 244 

Napton, W. B 240 

Phelps, John S 236 

Philips, John F 185 

Polk, Trusten 114 

Price, Sterling Ill 

Reynolds, Thomas 88 

Reynolds, Thos. C 181 

Rollins, James S 116 

Sherwood, Thos. A 246 

SiGEL, Franz.. 162 

State Seal 60 

Stewart, Robt. M 118 

Vest, Geo. G 238 

Woodson, Silas 226 



INDEX 



PAGE. 

Aid to railroads 109 

Alabama, admitted as a S^ate 47 

Amendment to Constitution, how 

made 249 

Anderson, the bushranger 195 

Ange's rule 11 

Animals, numerous wild 41 

Anti-Slavery societies 127 

Army of the West 95 

Arsenal at Liberty 147 

Arsenal in St. Louis 143 

Ashley, W. H 72, 75 

Assessments from suspected per- 
sons 182 

Atchison, D. R 74, 104, 113 

Attorney-General, duties of 250 

Auditor, duties of 250 

Baptists, refused to take oath 211 

Barton, David, Senator 51, 56 

Bates, Barton, Judge 210 

Bates, Edward 51, 67 

Bates, Frederick, Governor 62 

Battle of Carthage 162 

" Chihuahua 97 

" Boonville 161 

*' Lexington 178 

Pea Ridge 183 

Wilson's Creek 167 

Battles and skirmishes 197 

Bay, Judge W. V. N...., 210 

Benton, Thos. H 56, 91, 103-108, 113 

Benton's bitter contest for Senate ... 57 

Biddle, Major Thos 68 

Bingham, Col. Geo 194 

Blair, F. P 96, 155, 213 



PAGE. 

Blair refuses to take oath 210 

" Bloody Hill " 168 

Blue Lodges 120 

Boggs, Lilburn W 70, 75, 76, 82 

Bogy, Senator L. V 261 

Boone, Daniel 35, 36 

Boonville, battle of 161 

Boonville, settled 35 

Brockmeyer, H. C 235 

Brown, B. Gratz 160, 191, 213, 218 

Brown, John 122 

Bull, Dr. John 71 

Burr, Aaron 27-29 



Camp Jackson, attacked 147, 150 

Camp Jackson, effects of attack 151 

Capital of Missouri 65 

Carthage, battle of 162 

Cass County 193 

Centralia Massacre 195 

Circuit Clerk, duties of 254 

Circuit Court, powers 253 

Citizens of one State also of an- 
other 52 

Chihuahua, battle of 97 

Cholera ... 72 

Clark, George Rogers 16 

Clark, Captain William 30, 38, 75 

Clark, Jno. B., Sr 85, 180 

Clay, Henry 53 

Cockrell, Frank M 230 

Colman, Norman J 228 

Common law defined 252 

Compton's Ferry fight 186 

Conditional Union Men 136 

Congressmen 57 



274 



INDEX. 



PAGE. 

Congressmen, new 91 

list of 259 

Congressional delegates 33 

Confederate flag 181 

Constitution, meaning of 249 

first 51, bQ 

** attempts at new 93 

" Drake 204 

" effects of 211 

" overthrown 212 

of 1875 233 

Constitutional Convention of 1875, 

members of 266 

Convention of 1861 139 

" '' members of 264 

" " second meeting 

of 175 

Convention of 1861, Abrogates Con- 
stitution 190 

Convention of 1861, last session 190 

Coroner, duties of 254 

Counties, increase in number of 45 

*' organization of 265 

'' new 40 

Count)' Clerk, duties of 254 

Courts, kinds 252 

Crittenden, T. T 185, 239 

Cruzat 17, 18 

Cummings, Kev. J. A., convicted 

for not taking oath 212 

Curtis, General 183 

D'Abbadie, Commandant 10 

Delawares and Shawnees.. 18 

Delassus, Spanish ruler 29 

DeLeyba, '' '' 16 

DeSoto, Ferdinand 4 

DeWitt and Mormons 80 

Disfranchised citizens, number of.. 216 
*' " behavior of 217 



PAGE. 

Doniphan, A. W 74, 95 

Doniphan's Expedition 98 

Don Pedro, Spanish ruler 13 

Drake, Chas. D 206, 217 

Drake Constitution, adopted 209 

Dryden, Judge J. D. S 210 

Dueling 63 

Dunklin, Daniel, Lieut. -Governor. 65 

" " Governor 70, 71 

Dyer, D. P 239 

Earthquake, New Madrid 32 

Easton, Rufus. 61 

Edwards, John C, Governor 91 

Emancipation efforts 69 

'* by Convention 190 

" of slaves 205 

Emigration aid companies 120 

Engagements, other 197 

Equity Law 252 

Ewing, General Thomas 193 

Expedition of Lewis and Clark 30 

** Z. M.Pike 31 

Explorations of interior of Missouri 7 
< 

Far West 79 

Filley, O. D.'s circular letter 153 

Finances, troubles in 44 

Financial troubles in 1873 226 

Finkelnburg, G. A 258 

Fire among boats of St. Louis 101 

First settlement 9 

*' whiteman 4 

Fletcher, Thomas C 203 

Fort Orleans 8 

'' Sumter 134 

Francis, Governor D. R 244 

Franklin, settled 39 

Free negroes and mulattoes 52 



INDEX. 



lib 



PAGE. 

French characteristics 14 

" explorations 6 

** rule ended 11 

' ' ownership of land 14 

'* social habits 15 

*' houses 15 

Fremont in command 165 

Fremont's emancipation proclama- 
tion 177 

Fremont's march on Springfield.... 178 

Frost, General D. M 144 

Fugitive Slave Law 128, 131 

Gamble, Hamilton R 185, 200 

" becomes Governor 175 

Gamble's proclamation 176 

Gamble and the test oath 207 

General Assembly, powers of.. .235, 251 

Gentry, Colonel Richard 77 

Geyer, H. S., succeeds Benton, 

107, 108, 113 

Governor's duties 249 

Governors, list of.. 255 

Governor's salary 250 

Grange 227 

Grasshoppers 231 

Green, James S 114, 142 

Guitar, Odin 185 

Gun City tragedy 222 

Hagner, Major, in St. Louis 144 

Hall, William A., arguments for 

Union 137, 140 

Hall, Willard P 200, 202, 213 

Halleck, General, in command..l79, 185 

" issues Order No. 24 182 

Hannibal & St. Joseph railroad 240 

Hardin, Charles H., Governor 228 



PAGE. 



*' Hards " and '' Softs " 91 

Harney, General 148, 152, 153 

Harrison, W. H 19, 26, 66, 83 

Hempstead, Edward 33 

Henderson, John B 141, 190, 225 

Hinkle, Colonel G. W., and the 

Mormons 80 

Houses, character of 41 

House of Representatives 252 

Howard County 39 

Hudgins, Prince L 141 

Hughes, General Andrew S 74 

Hunter, General David 179 



"I'll try sir," Miller m 

Immigrants, character of 41 

Imprisonment for debt 87 

Indians attack St. Louis 17 

Indians, Seminoles and Creeks 77 

Internal improvements 108 

Iowa line 101 



Jackson, Claiborne F 131 

" deposed as Governor 175 

" and Lyon Conference 154 

" leaves the State 164 

" resolutions 103 

" retreats South 162 

Jackson's proclamation for troops.. 154 
" secession proclamation... 177 

James Boys 240 

Jay hawkers 122 

Jefferson, President 23 

Johnson, C. P 225 

Johnson, Waldo P 143 

Jones, John Rice 51, 59 

Judiciary organization 252 

Justice of Peace, powers and duties, 255 



276 



INDEX. 



PAGE. 

Kansas troubles 119-125 

Kennett, Luther M., defeats Ben- 
ton 107 

King, Austin A., Governor 100 

Kirksville, battle at 186 

Laclede, first settler of St. Louis... 10 

Lafayette, visit of (34 

Lands, cheap, in 179(5 20 

Lane, Dr. Wm. Carr ()7 

La Salle 7 

Lawrence, sacking of 191 

Laws, kinds of, in Missouri 252 

Lead, mining in 43 

Legislature, relation to secession... 133 

Lewis, Meriwether 29 

Lexington, battle of 178 

Lieutenant-Governors, list of 255 

Linn, Dr. L. F., Senator 88 

Livingston, Minister to France 23 

Local Option Law 242 

Locusts 231 

Log Cabin 41 

Louisiana, named 7 

' ' purchase 22 

" " amount of 25 

** " price paid for.. 24 

** transfer to U. S 25 

District of 26 

" Territory 26 

Lovejoy, Rev. E. P 73 

Lucas, Judge J. B. C 27 

Lucas, Chas 57 

Lyon, Captain Nathaniel 144 

*' and Blair 148, 154 

" and Frost 149 

'' at Springfield 166 

* movements of 160 

" killed 171 

Lyon's proclamation 154 



PAGE, 

Manumission Day 205 

Marmaduke, J. S 161, 241, 243 

Marmaduke, M. M 85 

Marquette, James 6 

Martial law 178 

McBride, General J. H 152 

McClellan, General G. B 165 

McClurg, Jos. W 214 

McCulloch, Ben 169, 183 

McGirk, Mathias 58 

McNair, Alex., first Governor 55 

McNeil, John H 186 

Mercantile Library officers 182 

Mexican w^ar ^ 152 

Military districts 152 

Military Bill 142, 151 

" by Convention 184 

Militia, State 86, 184 

Militia at polls 188 

Miller, John, Governor 62 

Missouri, named 7 

" organized as territory of 

first grade 26 

Missouri, organized as territory of 

second grade 37 

Missouri, organized as territory of 

highest grade 38 

Missouri, applies for admission into 

Union 46 

Missouri, objections to admission, 46, 47 
Missouri, struggles to become a 

State 48-^1 

Missouri Compromise, No. 1 50 

No. 2 53 

'' Missouri Gazette " 30 

Missourians in Kansas 121 

" in Mexican War 94 

" in Seminole War 77 

Mormon troubles 78-82 

" leaders tried 82 

Mormons expelled 81 



INDEX. 



277 



PAGE. 

Monroe, special Minister to France, 24 
Montgomery, James, jay hawker... 123 

Money 42 

Moss Resolution in Convention 140 

Mulligan, James A 178 

Mullins, Maj. A. W 185, 195 

Muster Day 86 

Napton, Judge W. B 103, 240 

Negro, provided for 220 

" Suffrage 215 

Neosho, skirmish at 163 

" Secession Legislature 180 

New Madrid claims 34 

New Mexico 95 

Oath of loyalty, first 188 

Officers of the State 249 

'' duties of 249 

salaries of 249-251 

" in battle of Wilson's 

Creek 170, 174 

Ohio Valley troubles 23 

Order No. 11 192 

Order No. 24 182 

Orders, other 183 

Ousting Ordinance 208 

'' enforced 209 

Palmyra and McNeil 187 

Parsons, Monroe M 152 

Peace and prosperity 219 

Pea Ridge, battle of 183 

People, feeling in regard to seces- 
sion .* 135 

Perez, Manuel, Spanish ruler 18 



Pettis, Spencer 67, 68 

Peyton, R. L. Y., Confederate Sen- 
ator 180 

Phelps, John S 91, 213, 226, 235 

Philips, John F 185, 195 

Pike, General Albert 183 

Pirates on river 18 

Platte Purchase 74 

Polk, Trusten ....114, 190 

Pontiac, Indian chief 12 

Poindexter 185 

Porter, Jo 185 

18 

21 

21 

40 

44 

125 

245 

70 



Population 


in 


1785 






1800 






1804 






1812 






1820 






1850 






1890 


Prairie fires... 





Preachers indicted for preaching... 211 
Price, Sterling, 

91, 96, 110, 151, 178, 183, 203 

Price joins Confederacy 184 

Price's raid 194 

Price, Thos. L 203 

Price-Harney agreement 153 

Probate judge, duties of 254 

Prohibitions 241 

Prohibition message, Mc'Clurg's... 214 
Prosperity during Miller's term 70 



Quantrell's attack on Lawrence 191 

Quebec 11 



Radicals and Conservatives 194 

Railroad Commissioners, duties of, 251 
difficulties 221 



278 



INDEX. 



PAGE. 

Railroad disaster at Gasconade 112 

State debt 233 

Recorder, duties of 254 

Red-legs : 191 

Reeves, Benjamin 51, 62 

Registration Act 212 

Regiments, new 157 

Renault 9 

Republican party 126 

Republicans, Liberal 215 

Radical 215 

Reynolds, Thomas 85, 88, 90 

Reynolds, Thomas C 181, 203 

Rollins, James S 113, 115, 226 

Sac, Fox and Iowa Indians 75 

Safety Committee 153 

SantaFe 95, 98, 99 

School system; Dunklin, father 

of 71 

Schurz, Carl 213, 217 

Scott, John 51, 57 

Secession 130 

" vote against 138 

** Convention against 141 

" Legislature at Neosho 180 

Secessionists 135 

Secretary of State, duties of 250 

Seminole AVar 77 

Senate, State; how composed, etc.. 251 

Senators, United States, list of 259 

" 190 

Settlements, Boone's Lick 33-3i 

first EngUsh 34 

Shawnees and Delawares 18 

Sherwood, Judge T. A 246 

Sheriff, duties of 254 

Sigel, General Franz 160, 162 

Slack, W.Y 152, 184 



PAGE. 

Slavery, prohibited north of the 

Ohio 19 

Slavery, bounded with 36° 30^ 50 

" discussed 127 

Slaves, first efforts at emancipa- 
tion 69 

Slave and Free States, number 

of 47 

Soil, adverse claimants to 27 

Solemn public act 53 

Soldiers, number of 199 

Spanish caravan 8 

rule , 13, 20 

Spain, troubles with 23 

Speakers of Missouri House 258 

Stanard, E. 214 

State Bank 84 

State Guard, organized 167 

" " organization of ceased, 

181, 184 
State University, faculty required 

to take oath of loyalty 183 

State Seal 59 

Steamboats, first 43 

St. Charles, settled 10 

St. Louis, settled 10 

Ste. Genevieve, settled 9 

Stewart, R. M...113, 117, 118, 130, 188 
Superintendent of Public Schools .. 251 

Supreme Court 246 

" duties of 252 

" members of 257 

Sturgis, Major 170, 173 

Tallmadge of New York 48 

Taylor, General Zachary 77 

Terms of office, length of 234 

Territory, Missouri's first years 
as a 25 



INDEX. 



279 



PAGE. 

Territorial officers 37 

Test oath 206 

" defeat forestalled 209 

repealed 215, 216 

Texas, annexation of 93 

Thomas of Illinois 53 

Tower, Grand 18 

Treasurer, duties of 251 

Trudeau, Spanish ruler 19 

Unconditional Union men 137 



PAGE. 

Van Dorn 183 

Vest, G. G 238 

Vote against secession 138 

Wagner, Judge David 210 

War declared 154 

War, preparations for 151 

Whigs 67, 85 

Wilkinson, Territorial Governor... 27 

Wilson's Creek, battle of 167 

" results of battle at, 172 

Winston, James 110 

Woodson, Silas 225 




/^ 




■>■). 





(^ 






LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 




017 136 426 7 



